The Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will tell the stories of Holocaust survivors who died over the last year, through a new tribute site to be launched on Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 8. The tribute page on the museum’s website, at mjhnyc.org, will feature the testimonials of relatives and images of survivors who lost their lives, whether to covid-19 or to anything else, since the pandemic began.
The memorial, a new section on the website, is designed to memorialize Holocaust survivors and provide a space for relatives to share their memories of loved ones. The museum is seeking those stories and encouraging relatives from the New York metropolitan area and beyond to submit them — along with photos — at mjhnyc.org/those-weve-lost-memorial-submissions/.
It is estimated that more than 38,000 survivors, all older than 75, live in the greater New York metropolitan area, and it’s expected that those numbers will decline to 23,400 within the next four years. Though there is no definitive account of how many survivors have lost their lives to covid, some 900 people who survived the Holocaust died of covid-19 in Israel, according to the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
To date, the museum has collected 15 stories, mainly from New Yorkers who have lost loved ones who lived in New York, Ohio, and other states.
Contributions to the new tribute page will not end on April 8. The museum will continue to unveil the stories of Holocaust survivors who have died last year.