Eighty years following the Holocaust, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are alive today, but it is anticipated that 70% of them will no longer be with us within the next decade. This underscores the urgency of preserving the testimonies of the final generation who lived through one of history’s darkest periods.
As of now, the median age of Holocaust survivors is 87, with over 1,400 individuals aged 100 or older, according to a report released on Tuesday. “We have always recognized that this generation of survivors would be our last chance to hear their firsthand accounts and to connect with their unique experiences,” explained Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference, which authored the report.
The comprehensive analysis of demographic trends and mortality statistics projects the numbers through 2040. Drawing on extensive data gathered by the Claims Conference since 1952, the report focuses on survivors receiving direct monetary support or welfare services through ongoing negotiations with Germany. According to the analysis titled “Vanishing Witnesses,” nearly half of all Holocaust survivors are expected to pass away within the next six years, with 70% likely to die within a decade and 90% within 15 years.
The remaining survivors, often in fragile health, continue to live with age-related ailments exacerbated by the trauma they endured during their youth. During the Holocaust, six million European Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Though the specific number of Jews who survived death camps, ghettos, or hidden circumstances throughout Nazi-occupied Europe is unknown, the postwar Jewish population significantly declined across the continent.
In Poland, out of 3.3 million Jews residing there in 1939, only around 300,000 survived. Similarly, Germany saw its Jewish population plummet from 560,000 in 1933 when Hitler rose to power to roughly 15,000 due to emigration and extermination by the end of the war. Surviving Jews dispersed globally after World War II, and they now reside in about 90 countries.
The “Vanishing Witnesses” report indicates varying survivor mortality rates based on location, often influenced by available healthcare and economic conditions. Israel, which harbors half of the world’s Holocaust survivors, counted 110,100 survivors as of October 2024, but that figure is projected to decline to 62,900 by 2030, a 43% decrease. The United States, home to 34,600 survivors in fall 2024, expects a 39% reduction, equating to 21,100 survivors. Former Soviet Union countries, with 25,500 survivors recorded in October 2024, anticipate a drop to 11,800 survivors, marking a 54% decline by 2030.
Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference, remarked, “This report starkly emphasizes that our survivors are nearing the end, and now is the critical moment to listen to their stories.”
Albrecht Weinberg, a 100-year-old survivor from Germany, lost nearly his entire family during the Holocaust. He continues to be haunted by terrifying memories, describing sleepless nights filled with nightmares. Having survived camps like Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, along with several death marches, Weinberg devoted many years to educating high school students and others about the horrors he endured. Yet, he remains concerned about preserving these histories after his generation passes away. “When my generation is gone, those coming after us will only find our stories in books,” he lamented.