Holocaust survivors mark 80th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation: 'A warning for us all'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- On Holocaust Remembrance Day, living survivors, their families and communities are marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Ida Kersz was separated from her family after living in the ghettos built for Jews when the Nazi invaded Poland in 1939. It would be 53 years until she found him again.

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"They came to the mothers to take away the children," Kersz recalled. "And my mother knew what's going to happen, that she'll never see us again. And in desperation, she ran across the street to a building. We followed her, and she jumped from the third floor."

Kersz soon went into hiding. She was forced to change her name and identity to stay alive. She said a Catholic family took her in and kept her safe.

"They were heroes. We call them the righteous of the world. They didn't get paid for what they did, but they could sacrifice their lives," she said. "I survived. And I know why I survived: So I would be the witness to holocaust."

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Kersz tells her story often at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, including today, the same day Allied Forces liberated the Auschwitz labor camp and Birkenau death camp, perhaps the two most infamous Nazi concentration camps. The story remains relevant today.

"Ida's story is a warning for us all, it's an instruction for us to remind ourselves that the Nazis didn't start with gas chambers; they started with words," said Kelley Szany, senior vice president of the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

More than 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Most of the victims, six million of them, were Jews killed largely by industrial-scale gas chambers.

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Szany said the museum keeps Holocaust education top of mind, especially for younger audiences, and are finding new ways to share the story of the Holocaust by using immersive technology with survivor accounts, even using live holograms.

"You can have a one-on-one with Holocaust survivors, or in our virtual reality journey you can walk on the sites of Auschwitz," she said.

With only about a couple thousand survivors still alive in the Chicago area, Kersz said while it wasn't easy at first, it's more important than ever to share her story.

"Eventually I overcame and I understand that how important it is that I do speak, and I'll never get tired until I, you know, cannot talk anymore," she said.

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