Jewish group launches Holocaust survivor speakers bureau to fight increasing antisemitism worldwide

BERLIN (AP) — More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Survivor Speakers Bureau was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.

“A Holocaust survivor speakers bureau of this scale and reach is unprecedented,” said Gideon Taylor, the president of the Claims Conference. “At a moment of dramatically rising antisemitism, this program tells the history and educates for the future.”

Six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.

The speakers bureau connects Holocaust survivors with students both virtually and in person.

In the United States and Germany, educational institutions can invite survivors to personally speak in classrooms and university lecture halls. Educators in other countries can request video conferences to ensure firsthand testimony is accessible.

The Claims Conference hopes to soon add more countries where young people can meet survivors in person.

“Holocaust education is crucial, especially given the current events happening around the world," said Holocaust survivor Eva Szepesi, who lives in Germany.

“My goal in sharing my own story of survival is and has always been to show the human impact, not just of the Holocaust, but of all the racist and hateful actions being taken in the world,” the 91-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz death camp added.

“If hearing my testimony helps one person understand that they, too, have a role in the events happening in their community, and they can stand up for what is right, then I feel it is worth it for me to go remember and share those terrible stories."

Antisemitism in Germany, many other European countries, the United States and elsewhere has been described as reaching levels not seen in many decades. The Claims Conference hopes that first-person accounts of the cruelties endured during the Holocaust will help counter disinformation, denial and prejudice.

“Firsthand accounts are essential to maintaining Holocaust memory and go much further to ensure people understand the impact of bigotry, antisemitism and unchecked hatred," said Greg Schneider, the vice president of the Claims Conference.

The group handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis and negotiates compensation with Germany’s finance ministry every year. Since 1952, the German government has paid more than $90 billion (83 billion euros) to individuals for suffering and losses resulting from persecution by the Nazis.

The Claims Conference administers several compensation programs that provide direct payments to survivors globally, provides grants to more than 300 social service agencies worldwide and ensures survivors receive services such as home care, food, medicine, transportation and socialization.

It also has secured increasing funding for Holocaust education in recent years as the number of survivors becomes smaller. Funding has increased from 30 million euros for 2024 to 41 million euros for 2027.

FILE - A police officer guards at the entrance of the building complex of the Kahal Adass Jisroel community, which houses a synagogue, a kindergarten and a community center, in the center of Berlin, Germany, on Nov. 8, 2023. The complex in the city's Mitte neighbourhood was attacked with two incendiary devices on Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier leads Holocaust survivor Eva Szepesi to the plenary of the German Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 31, 2024. More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

FILE - A woman carries a placard reading " no to racism" during a march against antisemitism in Paris, France, on Nov. 12, 2023. More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

FILE - A German police officer stands guard in front of the synagogue in Frankfurt, Germany, on Nov. 8, 2023. Antisemitism is spiking across Europe after Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre and Israel's bombardment of Gaza, worrying Jews from London to Geneva and Berlin. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

FILE - People attend the "NO FEAR: Rally in Solidarity with the Jewish People" event in Washington, on July 11, 2021, co-sponsored by the Alliance for Israel, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith International and other organizations. More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. The Survivor Speakers Bureau was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - People listen to speeches during a demonstration against antisemitism and to show solidarity with Israel in Berlin, Germany, on Oct. 22, 2023. More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. The Survivor Speakers Bureau was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - A white rose is placed at the 'Gleis 17', Track 17, the memorial site for the train transportation from Berlin to the camp, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 27, 2024. The International Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz - Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - Holocaust survivor Eva Szepesi speaks to the plenary of the German Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 31, 2024. More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

FILE - Tourists visit the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Jan. 27, 2024. More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. The Survivor Speakers Bureau was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

Since first grade, Julian Morris, 16, has changed schools six times, swinging between predominantly white and predominantly Black classrooms. None has met all his needs, his mother said.

At predominantly white schools, he was challenged academically but felt less included. At predominately Black schools, he felt more supported as a Black student, but his mother, Denita Dorsey, said they didn't have the same resources and academic opportunities.

Seventy years after the Supreme Court ruled separating children in schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional, Dorsey said the options available to her family in Michigan are disappointing.

“Segregation is abolished, sure, but our schools are still deeply divided along racial and socioeconomic lines,” Dorsey said. “It makes you think: It’s been 70 years but was it worth it?”

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling and desegregation orders were only the first steps toward the elusive goal of equitable education. For some Black families, school choice has been critical in finding the best available option. And that has not meant necessarily the school with the most racial diversity.

Integration alone is not what Black families have pushed for over the decades, said Bernita Bradley of the National Parents Union, an education advocacy group.

“We wanted integration with accountability and that’s not what we received,” she said. “That’s why choice needs to exist but we still need high-quality options.”

Dorsey made what she called a “contentious decision” in 2022, choosing Saginaw High School in Michigan, which is predominantly Black, over Julian's predominantly white charter school.

“I was challenged, and I had arguments with family. But Julian is now getting more support from his teachers and administration than he ever did at his previous schools,” she said.

The Brown decision is seen as a key impetus to kicking off the modern school choice movement. As many white families began turning to private schools as a way to avoid the court mandate, state lawmakers — primarily in Southern states — began launching school voucher programs.

In Prince Edward County in Virginia, which closed all its public schools in 1959 for five years to evade integration, state and local officials gave white families tuition grants and tax credits to attend private schools. No similar options were provided to Black families. The move inspired other states to adopt similar schemes before they were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.

The arguments for school choice evolved over time.

Some thinkers in the 1960s such as Milton Friedman argued that giving families money to spend on education how they saw fit would revolutionize education, incentivizing schools to improve or be left behind. At the same time, civil rights leaders stressed that choice could equalize education for lower-income families, which overwhelmingly include Black and Hispanic students.

Today, some of the loudest advocates for vouchers no longer approach it as a way to push for social justice, said Claire Smrekar, a professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt University. Rather, the focus is on parents' rights and lifting restrictions that may prevent wealthier families from using the programs at schools of their choice.

“This expansion is really extraordinary when you think about it,” Smrekar said. “There are no social justice arguments here for families trapped in poverty and zoned for low-performing schools. The new argument is that everyone should enjoy this subsidy.”

Meantime, conservative attacks on how topics related to race and racism are taught in schools have only added to the appeal of alternatives for some Black families. Some schools dedicate themselves to affirming students' Black heritage, claiming the mantle of freedom schools that started during the Civil Rights Movement in response to the inferior education Black Americans were receiving in the South.

“All parents want is a safe and caring environment where their child is going to go and they are going to be a partner in my child’s pathway to success,” Bradley said.

Black families also turned to homeschooling in large numbers during the pandemic, driven in part by a desire to shield their children from racism in classrooms and to better meet the individual academic needs of their children.

American schools are more racially diverse today compared to the era of Brown v. Board, but schools have been re-segregating, with lasting academic consequences. Schools where students of color compose more than 90% of the student body are five times more likely to be located in low-income areas, where students have worse educational outcomes.

According to research from Stanford University’s Educational Opportunity Project, the recent increase in segregation appears to be partially driven by school choice. In school districts where charter schools expanded most rapidly in the last two decades, segregation grew the most.

In Michigan, Julian said he thought his mother was “tripping or just going off the rails” to pull him out of a higher-ranked school.

“It wasn’t until I arrived at Saginaw High that I took a second look back and realized that what was said to me and things that happened at the school were not OK,” Julian said. “I was different there because I am Black. But now at Saginaw, it feels more welcoming and I feel included and supported. I feel the difference.”

Janel Jones, a mother of two children in Atlanta, said she has seen the benefits of choice, having sent her 13-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son to seven different schools combined. But just giving parents an option is not enough, she said.

“School choice is not choice if it is not equitable. At the end of the day, liberation directly affects our economic outcome, and as parents we have to make sure these educational systems are challenging academically but also meet their needs as members of society,” Jones said.

It is not as simple as sending children to an all-Black school, she said.

“Your child is protected, but also coddled. You have not learned how to understand and deal with microaggressions you are guaranteed to face when you get your first job. That’s the educational part we as Black parents also have to teach our kids and that’s not going to change any time soon,” she said.

AP journalists Sharon Lurye in New Orleans and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Janel Jones poses with her son, Christian Jones, 17, on Friday, May 17, 2024, in Lawrenceville, Ga. Jones, a divorced veteran in Atlanta with two children, said though she has seen the benefits of choice having sent her 13-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son to seven different schools combined across the country, she feels at though just giving parents an option is not enough. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Janel Jones poses with her son, Christian Jones, 17, on Friday, May 17, 2024, in Lawrenceville, Ga. Jones, a divorced veteran in Atlanta with two children, said though she has seen the benefits of choice having sent her 13-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son to seven different schools combined across the country, she feels at though just giving parents an option is not enough. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Denita Dorsey poses with her son Julian Morris, 16, in Saginaw, Mich., Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Denita Dorsey poses with her son Julian Morris, 16, in Saginaw, Mich., Thursday, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)