70% of Jewish Holocaust survivors will be gone in the next 10 years, a report shows

BERLIN (AP) — Eighty years after the Holocaust, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years — meaning time is running out to hear the voices of the last generation who suffered through one of the worst atrocities in history.

Currently, the survivors' median age is 87, and more than 1,400 of them are over 100 years old, a new report said Tuesday.

“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," said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference, which published the study.

The report's analysis of population projections and mortality rates provides details through 2040. It is based on the extensive data collected since 1952 by the Claims Conference, which includes survivors who receive direct payments or social welfare services funded by the organization as a result of ongoing negotiations with Germany.

Notably, nearly 50% of all Holocaust survivors will pass away within the next six years, while 70% will die within 10 years and 90% within 15 years, according to the report titled “ Vanishing Witnesses."

Those still alive are often of frail health and suffer from ailments that come with age and have been amplified by traumas in their youth.

Six million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.

It is not clear exactly how many Jews survived the death camps, the ghettos or somewhere in hiding across Nazi-occupied Europe, but their numbers were a far cry from the pre-war Jewish population in Europe.

In Poland, of the 3.3 million Jews living there in 1939, only about 300,000 survived.

Around 560,000 Jews lived in Germany in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power. After the Holocaust, their numbers had diminished to about 15,000 through emigration and extermination.

After the end of World War II, survivors settled all over the globe and even today they are still living in 90 different countries.

The “Vanishing Witnesses” report shows that mortality rates for survivors vary greatly across locations depending on access to health care and economic stability.

For example, Israel, which is home to about half of all Holocaust survivors, had 110,100 survivors as of October 2024 and is estimated to see their population decline to 62,900 by 2030, a drop of 43%.

The United States had 34,600 in the fall of 2024, but is projected to lose 39% over that same time, dropping to 21,100 survivors. Countries in the former Soviet Union had 25,500 survivors in October 2024, but are expected to be at 11,800 in five years, down 54 % by the start of 2030.

“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,” said Gideon Taylor, the president of the Claims Conference.

Albrecht Weinberg, a 100-year-old survivor from Germany who lost almost his entire family in the Holocaust, said that even today the horrendous memories are haunting him. “I sleep with it, I wake up with it, I sweat, I have nightmares; that is my present.”

Weinberg survived the concentration and death camps Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora, Bergen-Belsen and three death marches at the end of the war. He spent many years teaching high school students and others about the atrocities he had to live through. Still, he worries what will happen when he is no longer around to bear witness.

"When my generation is not in this world anymore, when we disappear from the world, then the next generation can only read it out of the book.”

Albrecht Weinberg, second from right, attends a memorial service and wreath-laying ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in Nordhausen, Germany, Monday, April 7, 2025. (Martin Schutt/dpa via AP)

FILE — New stone fields mark the barracks of the Nazi death camp Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, around 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Berlin, April 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - A man walks through the gate of the Sachsenhausen Nazi death camp with the phrase 'Arbeit macht frei' (work sets you free) at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in Oranienburg, about 30 kilometers, (18 miles) north of Berlin, Germany, Jan. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE — In this Friday, Jan. 10, 2020 taken photo clouds hang over the area of the Nazi death camp 'Buchenwald' in Weimar, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

A view of the entrance gate of the Nazi death camp 'Buchenwald' with the inscription 'Jedem das Seine' (To Each His Own) in Weimar, Germany, on Jan. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

FILE — Stone fields mark the barracks of former concentration camp where more than 43,000 persons were murdered and over 200,000 were imprisoned during the Nazis' terror reign from 1933-1945 in Dachau, Germany, April 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

FILE - A Wednesday, April 29, 2015 file photo showing blacksmiths preparing a replica of the Dachau Nazi concentration camp gate, with the writing "Arbeit macht frei" (Work Sets you Free) at the main entrance of the memorial in Dachau, Germany. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

FILE — The sun lights memorial stones at the former Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in Bergen, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE — Flowers and stones are placed for the victims at a memorial stone at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Bergen, northern Germany, April 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

FILE - A view inside gas chamber one at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, Dec. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE — The remains of brick stone chimneys of prisoners barracks inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau or Auschwitz II. in Oswiecim, Poland, Dec. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE — Holocaust survivors attend a ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, Jan. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - The railway tracks where hundred thousands of people arrived to be directed to the gas chambers inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, are pictured in Oswiecim, Poland, on Dec. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

FILE - General view of the Memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe, the so called Holocaust Memorial in central Berlin, Germany, June 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)