International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Dallas survivors reflect

DALLAS — Every 12 months on January 27, folks the world over acknowledge International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This 12 months, WFAA sat down with two Dallas-based survivors.

And they’d a lot to say.

“It brings back so many memories,” survivor Rosian Zerner mentioned.

“It brings back the memories of my 40 relatives who were killed.”

Zerner was simply six when she was despatched to a ghetto in Lithuania. She escaped after her dad and mom dug a small gap within the fence.

Andras Lacko was eight when he narrowly prevented the ghettos some 1,200 miles south in Hungary. He received scarlet fever, and spent the warfare quarantined in a army hospital.

“I’m very glad that I’m able to tell this story, and I’m glad to share whatever details I can remember,” Lacko advised WFAA.

WFAA spoke to Lacko and Zerner contained in the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. President and CEO Mary Pat Higgins mentioned this Holocaust Remembrance Day carries additional weight this 12 months. 

“We have lost more survivors,” she mentioned.

“And so, I think I feel, it means more to me in a different way each year as we lose more of our survivors. This year, as we’ve all been thinking about the rise in antisemitism and the increase in hate crimes across the country.”

“I think it’s more important than ever.”

“Antisemitism is definitely on the rise,” Lacko mentioned. “It makes me feel anxious and sad.”

But each consider that pattern might be reversed. 

“Perhaps we can go beyond the hate, beyond the agendas, beyond the cruelty that seems to be mainstream lately,” Zerner advised WFAA.

“Organizations like this here, this museum, present an incredible opportunity to reverse those trends,” Lacko added.

Zerner mentioned reflecting on and studying in regards to the previous is essential.

“Not because it’s enjoyable to focus on the suffering, but because the truth needs to be told.”

“The Jews are here to stay,” she smiled. “Hitler lost!”