NPR Consider This: News & Analysis

The memorial of the former Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, 11 April 2015. On 11 April 1945, US troops arrived at the camp which held 21,000 prisoners.

Sebastian Kahnert/Getty Images

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Sebastian Kahnert/Getty Images

The memorial of the former Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, 11 April 2015. On 11 April 1945, US troops arrived at the camp which held 21,000 prisoners.

Sebastian Kahnert/Getty Images

This summer marks 80 years since the end of World War II when Allied forces liberated Nazi-occupied Europe, and also began to discover the horrific scale of the Holocaust.

An estimated six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. Millions of others faced deadly persecution.

With the passage of time, there are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell the stories of what they witnessed and endured.

Once fringe ideas of Holocaust denial are spreading. Multiple members of President Donald Trump’s administration have expressed support for Nazi sympathizers and people who promote antisemitism And fewer and fewer survivors of the Holocaust are around to share their stories.

The stories of those who lived through the Holocaust are in danger of being forgotten. And there’s a race against time to record as many as possible.

In this episode, the story of a Jewish man who survived Buchenwald and an American soldier, who helped liberate the concentration camp.

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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Monika Evstatieva, Kai McNamee and Matt Ozug.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.