A first-of-its-kind global report has revealed that nearly three-quarters of Holocaust survivors currently alive will be gone by 2035, prompting urgent calls to record and amplify their stories before it is too late.
Published today by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), the Vanishing Witnesses report offers a stark analysis of the diminishing population of Holocaust survivors worldwide. Drawing on decades of demographic data, the report projects that 70 percent of all survivors will die within the next ten years, with 90 percent expected to pass away within 15.
Gideon Taylor, President of the Claims Conference, said, “This report
President of the Claims Conference, Gideon Taylor
provides clear urgency to our Holocaust education efforts; now is the time to hear first-hand testimonies from survivors and invite them to speak in our classrooms, places of worship and institutions. It is critical, not only for our youth but for people of all generations to hear and learn directly from Holocaust survivors. This report is a stark reminder that our time is almost up, our survivors are leaving us, and this is the moment to hear their voices.”
Currently, there are more than 200,000 Holocaust survivors living across 90 countries. The median age is 87, with more than 1,400 survivors over the age of 100. But the report warns that as survivors age, many will increasingly require complex care, with long-term funding needed to support chronic conditions and trauma-related health issues.
Still from a Red Army film of the liberation of Auschwitz. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections
Greg Schneider, Executive Vice President of the Claims Conference, said, “We have known that this population of survivors would be the last, our final opportunity to hear their first-hand testimonies, to spend time with them, our last chance to meet a survivor. These are our final years to honour them, make sure they are living in dignity, care for them and provide for their needs.
The work we do negotiating with the governments of Europe on behalf of survivors is critical to their existence; nothing could be more important or more urgent as we see what little time we have left to ensure their wellbeing.
The data also highlights regional disparities in mortality. In Israel, which is home to the largest number of survivors, the population is expected to fall from 110,100 in October 2024 to 62,900 by 2030, a 43 percent decline. The United States is projected to lose 39 percent of its survivors in the same period, dropping from 34,600 to 21,100. In countries of the former Soviet Union, a more dramatic 54 percent drop is expected, with numbers falling from 25,500 to 11,800.
Survivors themselves are adding their voices to the call for remembrance.
Leonard Zaicescu, 98, a survivor of the death train of Iasi, Romania, said, “I am one of the last survivors of the death train of lasi, Podu Iloaiei. I am 98 years old, but as long as I am still alive and have strength, I will do everything I still can so that future generations will learn about what happened, the Lassi Massacre, and that it may become known in the memory of future generations.”
The Iasi-Calarasi death train at the railroad station in Targu-Frumos, 2 July 1941. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Serviciul Roman De Informatii
Pinchas Gutter, one of the last Holocaust survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, added, “It’s sobering to see exactly how few of us Holocaust survivors are left. We have an important piece of history that only we hold and only we can tell. I hope in the time we have we can impart the learning from the Holocaust so that the world will never again have to endure that level of hate. I am a witness. Those of us witnesses still alive are working to make sure our testimonies are heard and preserved through any means possible.
We are counting on this generation to hear us and future generations to carry our experiences forward so that the world does not forget.”
Other elderly survivors echoed the same sense of urgency.
“My mother, Nechama Grossman, is 110 years old, one of the oldest Holocaust survivors in the world,” said Vladimir Shvetz, whose mother lives in Israel. “She lived through the worst of humanity, and she survived. She raised her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren to teach them that unchecked hatred cannot win. We must remember her story, remember the Holocaust, remember all the survivors and learn from it so that her past does not become our future.”
Malka Schmulovitz, a 109-year-old survivor from Lithuania now living in Florida, said, “To be one of the oldest survivors alive right now at my age tells me we are running out of time. We all have a testimony that needs to be shared. We all want to be sure that this generation of young people and the ones that come after them hear and understand what truly happened during the Holocaust, if only so that we do not see it repeated.”
Holocaust Survivor Tattoo
Sonja Elazar, a survivor from Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, added, “I am one of the youngest witnesses of the Holocaust, and I am 79 and a few months old. It was a miracle that I was born, and that I survived.”
Alongside Vanishing Witnesses, the Claims Conference has also updated its global demographic report, Holocaust Survivors Worldwide: A Demographic Overview. According to this data, around 61 percent pf the survivors are women, and the majority are aged between 78 and 100.
