Jewish community fights to keep history alive on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Monday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It's been 80 years since the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated at the end of the Second World War.

But for Rabbi Andrew Baker, keeping the history and stories of Auschwitz alive has never been more important.

"When you visit there, you know you're walking in the very same place. You see the barracks. You see the train tracks," Baker said.

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Baker is the director of International Jewish Affairs for the American Jewish Committee.

He's traveling to Auschwitz to attend a special memorial being held Monday for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The rabbi says he thinks this trip is especially important.

Eight decades later, surveys show an increasing number of people are unaware of what the Holocaust is or the horrors that happened.

"Virtually a half or more surveyed cannot identify that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. There's significant percentages of people when surveyed are unable to identify the name of a single concentration camp like Auschwitz," Baker said.

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That lack of knowledge is also concerning for Teresa Drenick.

Drenick is the deputy regional director for the AJC's Northern California chapter and the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

"It was absolutely with them for the duration of their lives, and it resonates in the families of anyone who was either a survivor or refugee from the Holocaust," Drenick said.

Drenick thinks Monday's event in Poland is important for other reasons too.

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She points to the explosive growth of antisemitism in the Bay Area and around the U.S. since the start of Israel's war with Hamas.

"The similarities of what we are seeing currently, in terms of the rising antisemitism, the vitriol thrown at Jewish communities around the United States and around the world is an echo of what was seen in Europe in the 1930s," Drenick said.

Ahead of Monday, Baker says calling out antisemitism is a way all of us can honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"If antisemitism takes sway, other prejudices, other hatred will follow. And the very principals of our democratic society begin to erode," Baker said.