International Holocaust Remembrance Day
January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD). The date marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of , the Nazi’s largest concentration and extermination camp. 1.1 million people were killed in the camp; almost 1 million of them were Jews. On this day in 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau and its remaining prisoners.
Primo Levi, an Italian Jew, chronicled all he and others endured Auschwitz, including the camp's liberation, in . Tova Friedman also survived Auschwitz. She was among the youngest survivors, and decades later.
The camp has become a symbol of both unimaginable cruelty, but also of tremendous resilience. In 2005, the UN’s named January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day in honor of the victims of Nazism and to encourage Holocaust education. Six million Jews were killed during the Nazi regime, along with millions of others, including Roma-Sinti, homosexuals, communists, Catholics, and the mentally or physically disabled.
If you would like to learn more about the Holocaust, ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï students created for the Redpath Book display as part of the 2023 commemoration.
Commemorative Lectures
ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï's International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemorative Lectures honour the memory of Holocaust victims, raise awareness about antisemitism, and foster education and scholarship to combat hatred and promote understanding.
On January 27, 2026, ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï will welcome Professor Aliza Luft, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Professor Luft will share her research on the Holocaust in France in a lecture titled “Between God and Vichy: Religion, Race, and the Holocaust in France."
Date: January 27, 2026
Time: 5:00-6:30 PM
Location: Thomson House Ballroom, 3650 McTavish
Professor Luft's research examines the fluctuating relationships between social identity, ideology, and interpersonal, socio-political action in contexts marked by war and violence. Her book, Sacred Betrayal: How the French Catholic Church Broke Its Pledge to Protect Jews During the Holocaust, is forthcoming with Harvard University Press in Fall 2026. Another book, the second Handbook of The Sociology of Morality, co-authored with Shai Dromi and Steve Hitlin, was recently published by Springer. She has also published numerous op-eds and interviews in The Washington Post; New Yorker; LA Times; NY Times, and elsewhere.
