Welcome to the International Auschwitz Committee!
The International Auschwitz Committee is an association of Auschwitz survivors and their organizations. The International Auschwitz Committee unites organizations, foundations and Holocaust survivors from 19 countries. The office of the IAC is located in Berlin. The current President of the International Auschwitz Committee is Auschwitz survivor Dr. Eva Umlauf, Munich.
- 30 November 2025, Landsberg - A stage full of young people at the Liberation Concert in Landsberg: Youth Chamber Orchestra, Project Theatre Group, Grand Choir, and the Mateh Asher Big Band. Patron: Dr Eva Umlauf, President of the International Auschwitz Committee. Photo: Saskia Pavek, Merkur.de
4.12.2025
Have hope: International Auschwitz Committee honours the Liberation Concert in Landsberg under the patronage of IAC President Dr Eva Umlauf.
Landsberg am Lech, 30 November 2025 – It is with deep gratitude and utmost respect that the International Auschwitz Committee honours this year’s Liberation Concert in Landsberg am Lech.
- On 25 November 2025, Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) presented the new 95 cent special stamp in Berlin in honour of Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer. The stamp bears her motto: ‘Don't look at what divides you. Look at what unites you. Be human, be reasonable.’
4.12.2025
The German Federal Ministry of Finance has issued a special stamp in honour of Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer, who passed away in May at the age of 103.
- Dr Eva Umlauf, Holocaust survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, calls on members of the relevant business associations to make their position clear and: Help protect and shape democracy. Photo: Eva Oertwig/SCHROEWIG News & Images for IAK Berlin
20.11.2025
Holocaust survivors call on business associations: “Help to protect and shape democracy.”
Following the Association of Family Entrepreneurs, the German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses has now also questioned the firewall against the AfD and, as the second major business association, wants to rethink its relations with the AfD. In Munich, Dr Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, stressed:
- Symbolic image of the scheduled sale by the Felzmann auction house in Neuss. Letters from prisoners in German concentration camps, perpetrator documents, and personal writings and documents relating to the persecution and humiliation of individuals will go under the hammer on 17 November in Neuss. Image: Gemini/KGS for IAK Berlin.
15.11.2025
Sale scheduled for 17 November by Felzmann auction house in Neuss
Felzmann auction house in Neuss is advertising a sale it intends to carry out on 17 November entitled ‘The System of Terror’ Vol II 1933-1945.
- 3D-reconstruction of the gas van assigned to SS-Sonderkommando VIIa. Image: Cameron A. Munro, Tiergarten4Association e.V.
10.11.2025
Tiergarten4Association release a 3D Reconstruction of the Nazi Gas Van Assigned to SS-Sonderkommando VIIa in April 1942 in the Occupied Soviet Union.
Berlin, Germany, November 10th 2025 – Today Tiergarten4Association e.V., in association with the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, in Berlin, releases a short film and lecture using its 3D-reconstruction of the Nazi gas van assigned to SS-Sonderkommando VIIa in the occupied Soviet Union in April 1942.
- Plaque on the Old Town Hall in Munich in remembrance of the Nazi pogroms of 9 November 1938. Photograph: Evergreen68, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
8.11.2025
Commemoration day tomorrow, 9 November, marks the 87th anniversary of the nationwide Nazi pogroms on that night in 1938, and 9 November as a ‘decisive day’ for all Germans.
In a speech marking tomorrow’s commemoration of the 87th anniversary of the Nazi pogroms on 9 November 1938, as well as 9 November being a ‘decisive day’ for all Germans, Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, emphasized in Munich:
- Invitation to Christoph Heubner's book presentation on October 30 in Budapest on the occasion of Éva Fahidi's 100th birthday.
28.10.2025
Invitation to Christoph Heubner’s book presentation on 30 October in Budapest on the occasion of Éva Fahidi’s 100th birthday.
On 22 October 2025, the Hungarian-Jewish Auschwitz survivor Éva Fahidi would have been 100 years old. To mark this occasion, the Éva Fahidi Prize will be awarded for the first time on 30 October in Budapest. The prize was established by renowned conductor Adam Fischer, a member of Éva Fahidi’s family, and Eva’s partner Andor Andrasi. The International Auschwitz Committee is also one of the supporters and sponsors of the prize. It has been established in honour of Éva Fahidi, who lost 49 relatives during the Holocaust, including her parents, grandparents, and sister.
- October 16–19, 2025: IAK Presidium Meeting in Munich. Photo: IAK Berlin
27.10.2025
IAK Presidium Meeting 16-19 October 2025, in Munich.
Delegates from Israel, Poland, Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Germany attended the meeting of the Presidium of the International Auschwitz Committee. The event took place in Munich from 16 to 19 October and opened with a meeting with Bavarian Minister of State for International and European Affairs Eric Beisswenger at the Bavarian State Chancellery.
- Symbolic image: The hand of a Holocaust survivor with tattooed prisoner number holds the hand of a young Palestinian. In the background a candle burns brightly between the Star of David and the Palestinian flag – a sign of remembrance, empathy and hope for peace. Image: ChatGPT/KGS IAK Berlin
6.10.2025
Two years after 7 October 2023: Remembrance, solidarity and hope for peace
Around the globe, survivors of the Holocaust are commemorating their fellow sufferers in Israel, whose world was once again torn apart on 7 October 2023 by the terrorist acts of Hamas.
- Dr. Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor, on a lecture tour in Ireland—a powerful appeal against forgetting and for responsibility in the present. Image: Dr. Eva Umlauf
30.9.2025
Dr. Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, on a lecture tour in Ireland
At the invitation of Irish colleges and universities, Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, will be giving lectures and readings in Dublin, Galway, and Limerick from October 6 to 10. The lecture tour is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- IAK Greetings for the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah 2025 (September 23-24, 2025). Image: Sokor - Freepik.com, image editing: KGS IAK Berlin
23.9.2025
Rosh Hashanah 2025
We wish all survivors and all our friends around the world, especially during these days: A happy and peaceful New Year: Shana Tova!
- The Flanders Festival Gent has decided to cancel the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra's concert on 18 September 2025. That is when the orchestra was scheduled to perform in Ghent together with its future chief conductor Lahav Shani. It was to be one of the artistic highlights of the festival. Image: Screenshot https://www.gentfestival.be/en/event/munich-philharmonic-conducted-by-lahav-shani
18.9.2025
Dark day for culture in Europe
On 18 September, after the board of directors of the Flanders Festival in Ghent had decided that the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, and especially its conductor Lahav Shani, would not be performing at the festival as planned today, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, stated during a visit to the Auschwitz Memorial:
10.8.2025
“Like a second catastrophe” – Holocaust survivors in Israel feel abandoned by Germany
In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, gave a statement on the current situation of Holocaust survivors in Israel and the recent decisions by the German federal government regarding its stance on Israel and arms exports to Israel:
- Anita Lasker-Wallfisch in Traun, Austria. She spoke at a concert featuring music by the Auschwitz Girls’ Orchestra. Photo: PumpingRudi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
16.7.2025
100th birthday of Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch on 17 July in London
Speaking in Berlin on the 100th birthday of Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, said:
- Berlin, 1 July 2025: Speech by the President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Dr Eva Umlauf, at the award ceremony for the 2025 Fritz Bauer Study Prize for Human Rights and Contemporary Legal History at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV). Photo: Screenshot from the BMJV video recording.
2.7.2025
Award of the Fritz Bauer Study Prize for Human Rights and Contemporary Legal History
Speech by the President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Dr Eva Umlauf, at the award ceremony for the Fritz Bauer Study Prize for Human Rights and Contemporary Legal History on 1 July 2025, at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV):
- Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria. Photo: IMAGO/Wolfgang Maria Weber
2.7.2025
Munich decision shakes confidence in judicial system
Commenting on the decision by the Munich Administrative Court in the case of Charlotte Knobloch’s right-wing extremist bodyguard, Auschwitz survivor and President of the International Auschwitz Committee Dr Eva Umlauf stressed:
- Berlin, Germany, June 24th 2025 – Today Tiergarten4Association e.V. publishes its pioneering book: Engineered for Mass Murder – The Nazi Gas Vans: 1939-1945, including, for the first time, fifteen verifiable photographs of a gas van. The author Cameron A. Munro, is able to authenticate and prove from surviving documents and witness testimonies that these fifteen photographs are of a gas van which utilized combustion engine exhaust gas to kill. Image: Cameron A. Munro, Tiergarten4Association e.V.
24.6.2025
Tiergarten4Association e.V. publishes pioneering book: Engineered for Mass Murder - The Nazi Gas Vans: 1939-1945
Berlin, Germany, June 24th 2025 – Today Tiergarten4Association e.V. publishes its pioneering book: Engineered for Mass Murder – The Nazi Gas Vans: 1939-1945, including, for the first time, fifteen verifiable photographs of a gas van.
- During a school educational trip, four boys are seen standing in front of the entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp memorial and showing the white power salute often used in the neo-Nazi scene. One of the young right-wing extremists uploaded the scene to his Instagram story. Photo: The Times, Instagram
18.6.2025
Expulsion from school after white power salute in Auschwitz
During a visit to the Auschwitz Memorial, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice-President of the International Auschwitz Committee, commented on the right-wing extremist gestures of pupils from Greifswald during their visit to the Auschwitz Memorial and the current reactions and debates on the subject:
- Berlin, 31 May 2025: Today in Berlin, the Presidium of the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) elected Dr Eva Umlauf as the new President of the International Auschwitz Committee. Dr Umlauf is a German-Jewish paediatrician originally from Slovakia, a psychotherapist and Auschwitz survivor. She succeeds the Polish-Jewish journalist and Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski, who died on 18 February 2025. Photograph: Eva Oertwig/SCHROEWIG News & Images
31.5.2025
Auschwitz survivor Eva Umlauf elected as President of the International Auschwitz Committee.
At a meeting of the presidium of the International Auschwitz Committee in Berlin today, the Slovakian-born German-Jewish paediatrician, psychotherapist and Auschwitz survivor Dr Eva Umlauf was elected as the new President of the International Auschwitz Committee. She succeeds the Polish-Jewish journalist and Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski, who died in Warsaw on 18 February.
- Karin Prien, Federal Minister of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, calls for compulsory visits to concentration camp memorials for school students. Photo: IMAGO/Revierfoto
22.5.2025
Education Minister Prien calls for compulsory visits to concentration camp memorials for school students.
Parallel to follow-up work on an Auschwitz Memorial project with German and Polish trainees from Volkswagen AG, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee commented in Emden, Lower Saxony, on the Education Minister's proposals:
- Dr h.c. Margot Friedländer, née Bendheim. Honorary citizen of Berlin, Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. 5 November 1921 − 9 May 2025. Pictured with Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee at an event marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at the State Representation of Lower Saxony in Berlin on 23 January 2025. Photo: Eva Oertwig / SCHROEWIG News & Image
9.5.2025
Holocaust survivors pay tribute to Margot Friedländer who has died aged 103.
On receiving the news of the death of Margot Friedländer, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, stated in Berlin:
- Berlin, 8 May 2025: German Bundestag commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.From left: Anke Rehlinger, Friedrich Merz, Julia Klöckner, Frank Walter Steinmeier, Elke Büdenbender and Prof Dr Stephan Harbarth at the German Bundestag’s commemoration ceremony in Berlin. Photo: Imago/Matthias Gränzdörfer
8.5.2025
Commemorating 80th anniversary of VE Day
For survivors of the Holocaust, 8 May brought the certainty that those who had humiliated them and their families for many years, persecuted them and deported them to concentration and extermination camps, had now finally been defeated and deprived of power.
- The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD as “right-wing extremist”. Image: imago images/Christian Ohde, Collage: KGS IAK Berlin
5.5.2025
AfD classified as extreme-right. What Holocaust survivors now expect from the federal government.
In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, commented on the classification of the AfD as "right-wing extremist" by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the expectations of the new German government:
- 20 April 2025 – Vatican City. Pope Francis gives the Urbis et Orbi blessing from St Peter’s Basilica balcony on Easter Sunday..Following the blessing the Pope greeted the crowds on St Peter’s square from the Popemobile. Photograph: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
21.4.2025
Auschwitz survivors throughout the world are bidding farewell to Pope Francis
On the death of Pope Francis, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, paid tribute in Berlin:
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, August 1935. Image: dietrich-bonhoeffer.net, Collage: KGS IAK Berlin
8.4.2025
80th anniversary of the murder of the protestant theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer on 9 April 1945 in Flossenbürg concentration camp
Holocaust survivors around the globe are now honouring the memory of the German theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was murdered at Floßenbürg concentration camp on 9 April 1945, two weeks before it was liberated. Adolf Hitler gave the explicit order himself.
- Auschwitz survivor Liliane Esrail, Paris 2011. Photo: Michèle Déodat
22.3.2025
Invitation to the exhibition opening on 27 March 2025 at 7 pm
Michèle Déodat and Christoph Heubner have met with Holocaust survivors for many decades. They engage in conversations about the past that never fades and, in their conversations, the survivors reveal glimpses of their murdered relatives, who will never grow old.
- Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg with the Federal Cross of Merit 2017. Photo: Badmanontour, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
6.3.2025
Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg will be 100 years old on 7 March
Speaking in Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee congratulated Albrecht Weinberg on his100th birthday:
- Marian Turski, Auschwitz survivor, journalist and President of the International Auschwitz Committee, died in Warsaw on 18 February 2025 at the age of 98. Marian Photograph: Eva Oertwig, SCHROEWIG News & Images for IAC Berlin
18.2.2025
The International Auschwitz Committee mourns the death of its president, the Jewish-Polish Auschwitz survivor and journalist Marian Turski.
Marian Turski was born in 1926. He was imprisoned with his family in the Lodz ghetto as a teenager and deported from there to Auschwitz. He was 20 years old when he was liberated, in his own words more dead than alive, following the death march from Auschwitz to Theresienstadt. Speaking in Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice-President of the International Auschwitz Committee, paid tribute to Marian Turski as follows:
- 9 February 2024: Gerhard Richter Museum Birkenau with Gerhard Richter cycle “Birkenau”. Photograph: Dominik Smolarek, MDSM
9.2.2025
Auschwitz survivors congratulate Gerhard Richter on his 93rd birthday and thank him for his remembrance work
Today is the birthday of artist Gerhard Richter. Speaking in Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice-President of the International Auschwitz Committee, congratulated the artist as follows:
- Today (29 January) one week after the knife attack in Aschaffenburg, the Bundestag discussed a stricter migration policy. After the heated debate, a vote was held on Friedrich Merz's so-called five-point plan, among other things. The result: the Bundestag voted in favour of the demands for a drastic tightening of asylum policy. The FDP and AfD had previously signalled their support for the motion. The SPD, Greens and Left rejected it. Image: WDR Aktuell via YouTube
29.1.2025
"A fatal mistake" – Holocaust survivors concerned about political developments in the German Bundestag
Commenting on today's situation in the German Bundestag - the hour of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and the subsequent debate on the possible joint vote by the CDU and AfD - Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, stated in Berlin:
- 27 January 2025, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial: Commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Photograph: Heiko Lossie, VW employee
27.1.2025
Remembrance ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial on the 80th anniversary of liberation.
Berlin/Auschwitz, 27 January 2025 - On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, the International Auschwitz Committee commemorated the millions of victims of the National Socialist’s systematic murder programme and called for responsibility for the future.
- Protesters take part in the demonstration “Sea of lights against the shift to the right”, photographed on 25 January 2025 in Berlin. Photo: Maurizio Gambarini/FUNKE Foto Services/IMAGO
25.1.2025
80 years after Auschwitz: Demonstrations send a powerful message strengthening the firewall against right-wing extremism.
Commenting on today's demonstrations against right-wing extremism and the stability of the “firewall” in Germany, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, emphasized:
23.1.2025
Remembrance ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
On 23 January 2025, the International Auschwitz Committee held a remembrance ceremony at the Lower Saxony State Representation in Berlin to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp.
Video recordings of the memorial ceremony can be found here:
Photos of the event can be found here:
Photo gallery 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Speech by Marian Turski on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
- This photo was taken from inside the camp in February or March 1945 after the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The upper third shows the railway gatehouse complex that was built in 1943. It extends through the entire image. In the exact centre stands the gatehouse tower with the open entrance. In the right-hand section another opening can be seen. This was intended for motor vehicles. The track passing through the main gateway that then divides via switches into three separate tracks. At the side the ramp can be seen. This is where the new prisoners arrived and were selected. Metal and enamel tableware lies scattered in the foreground. Similar to the ground, these items are covered with snow. Photograph: Stanisław Mucha creator QS:P170,Q9342630, Auschwitz swavesey, public domain, details on Wikimedia Commons
19.1.2025
80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
In January 2025, Auschwitz survivors around the world will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation. The International Auschwitz Committee will be opening the worldwide commemoration of those murdered as well as the survivors in the German capital Berlin. It was in this city that Auschwitz was planned and systematically organized.
