A New Generation Must Step Up to Tell the Stories of the Holocaust

January 24, 2025 Guest Contributor

The author's late grandmother, Johanna Neumann, escaped Nazi Germany in 1939 and fled with her family to Albania. (Provided photo)

By Jamie Neumann

Monday, Jan. 27, was the annual observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

We are reaching a pivotal time in Holocaust remembrance and storytelling. There is an unprecedented amount of Holocaust denial and antisemitism around the world, all while there are fewer survivors of the Shoah still alive to tell their stories.

There has never been a better time for the torch to be passed onto younger generations to share family Holocaust stories.

I am a third-generation Holocaust survivor. My late grandmother, Johanna Neumann, escaped Nazi Germany in 1939 and fled with her family to Albania. They were rescued by Muslims there who protected them during the Nazi occupation of Albania.

She spent her entire life going around the world to share her story. She even came to my Krieger Schechter Day School class when I was a student there to talk about her wartime experiences.

Now, I am telling her story to those same students, whether it is to my niece and nephew’s class or to students at a secular school.

I feel this sacred responsibility to make sure that my grandmother’s story is never forgotten, and I continue to work on ways to carry on her legacy and that of all Holocaust survivors.

They did not endure and survive against all odds for their stories to be forgotten and for Jewish people to have to hide their identity in a world full of hate. Schools continue to look for Holocaust storytellers to ensure that youngsters understand what happened during the Shoah. Storytelling is such a powerful way to educate future generations.

While I have been putting my efforts into telling my own family story, I am also trying to find ways to encourage and empower others to share their family stories. That is why I helped organize “Passing the Torch: A 3G Holocaust Speaker Workshop” on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

While this virtual program was geared toward third-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors, any generation will benefit from the workshop. You do not even need to be a descendant of a survivor to tell Holocaust stories.

I ran this workshop with the Jewish Federations of North America as part of its Changemakers program. We were lucky to have speakers from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Living Links and Teach the Shoah to give participants the resources to begin their Holocaust storytelling journey.

We also had a local storyteller, Jessica Silverman, coming to share her experiences of telling Holocaust stories, as well as sharing the experiences of her late grandmother, Minnie Osher.

Jessica Silverman and Minnie Osher — Pikesville resident Jessica Silverman (right) is shown with her grandmother, Minnie Osher. (Provided photo)

Together, we can all ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten and that the torch of remembrance continues to burn brightly. (To register, visit changemakers.jewishfederations.org/event.)

Also, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, Jessica and I led “The 3G Legacy: Honoring the Past, Empowering the Future” with Sol Levinson & Bros. as part of their community outreach programming. This virtual gathering was also in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

During this program, I shared my grandmother’s story and Jessica will discuss her grandmother surviving the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz and other concentration camps as a teenager.

We also gave an update on the momentum of 3G, the third-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors in Baltimore.

Johanna Neumann and Jamie Neumann — (Provided photo)

Jamie Neumann is a digital marketing specialist who lives in Pikesville