Montreal Holocaust Museum commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Angela Orosz Richt was born in a death camp.

Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp where over 1.1 million people were killed. She is a Holocaust survivor.

With Jan. 27 marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Richt spoke at the Montreal Holocaust Museum on Thursday evening.

“My mother always said, I have two birthdays,” explained Richt. “One is was December 21 and the other one is January 27.”

“Because if Auschwitz was not liberated January 27, we were liberated by the Russians army, then we would be dead,” she added.

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Her mother was three months pregnant when taken to the camp in May 1944.

Richt’s father was murdered there.

“It didn’t happen such a long time,” she said. “Here am I, 78 years ago.”

Delivered in an upper bunk, with the help of an inmate, Richt says she was so weak that she didn’t cry – this helped her go unnoticed as a newborn until January 27, 1945, the liberation of the camp.

“Angie is so special because she’s an amazing speaker,” said Sarah Fogg, Head of communications, Montreal Holocaust Museum. “She’s so open and kind and she’s so willing to share her story with others and transmit the lessons of the Holocaust and its human rights legacy.”

This year marks the 78^th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

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The conversation, in partnership with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, was held with Canadian journalist Lisa LaFlamme, who visited the camp with Richt back in 2020.

“If we are really going to fight to make sure we never see this again, it takes everybody to wake up and realize we all have a role in this,” said LaFlamme.

They discussed their visit to Auschwitz, the resilience of survivors, and the importance of Holocaust education today.

(Credit: museeholocauste/Instagram)

A survey recently showing that nearly half of all Canadians don’t know what Auschwitz was.

“This is something unbelievable,” said Richt.

Richt now lives in Montreal and was a teacher, like her mother, Vera, who died in Toronto in 1992 – on January 28th.

“She was begging and she said, ‘One more day, I want to live, I don’t want to die in January 27’,” said Richt.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day being commemorated at Montreal’s Holocaust Museum. (Credit: Pamela Pagano/CityNews)

As one of the youngest survivors from the Holocaust, Richt says it’s impacted her that her life began where so many lives ended.

“What was the Holocaust?” said Richt. “What can we do to stop that hate that still exists in antisemitism?”