Illinois Holocaust survivors vow to make sure younger generations never forget

SKOKIE, Ill. (CBS) — On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, CBS News Chicago was invited on a very special coffee date with a small, but mighty group of local Holocaust survivors.

The group started as 15 people, but is now down to about five Holocaust survivors who meet every week — in person and virtually — for a Coffee & Conservation series. Those who attend are some of the last living witnesses who saw firsthand the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

While every conservation they have is special, Monday is an especially important and solemn occasion — marking 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland.

Aron Blumenstein, who turns 100 years old in June, was just 14 when the war broke out.

“I remember everything,” Blumenstein said. “They took us to Auschwitz to get killed.”

Blumenstein was transported to Auschwitz in 1943. He said his neighbor from back home in Warsaw hid him from the guards and ultimately helped him escape to another camp.

“He recognized me right on the train,” Blumenstein said. “He took me down on the train and put me to his back.”

Gdalina Lin Novitsky was just 3 years old when the Nazis took over her home of Kyiv in Ukraine. She and her mother fled on a cattle train that was often bombed by the Germans.

“Cars were put on fire and human bodies and parts of human bodies were scattered everywhere,” Novitsky said.

Now, Novitsky regularly speaks to school groups to remind them to remember.

“Not to forget, and to prevent these atrocities in the future,” she said. “That’s why I’m talking.”

Every year on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the group shows their support for the #WeRemember campaign by the World Jewish Congress.

“I hope they remember they remember that Holocaust was real, that Holocaust happened,” Novitsky said.

Even though there are fewer voices to tell the story, those that remain are determined to be louder than ever.

“We survivors don’t want out past to become your future, so we talk about this,” Novitsky said.

As of 2024, there were about 245,000 Holocaust survivors alive across the world. Holocaust Community Services at CJE SeniorLife currently provides support to nearly 1,600 survivors in Illinois.