On December 11, the Claims Conference organization held an event called International Holocaust Survivors Night. It was a live-streamed celebration, which featured special messages from Holocaust survivors, including Leon Weintraub, as well as Jewish artists such as Barbara Streisand, Jaime Lee Curtis and Billy Cristal.
In addition, the event was attended by the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Claims Conference is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that, in its own words, has been working since 1951 seeking recognition from the German government, negotiating compensation, restitution and home care for those in need who endured so much, Holocaust survivors and their families.
The virtual event celebrated the start of the fifth day of Hanukkah, when the lights would be lit to pay tribute to the 6 million European Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
Prior to the event, Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the organization, said that “Holocaust survivors somehow overcame the depravity of concentration camps, death camps and murder centers, among other horrors, to become our living examples, providing a path for how light can overcome darkness.”
According to the organization, the broadcast of the event was prepared to be done with subtitles in three languages: English, Hebrew and Russian, and will be available to anyone interested around the world.