Staff member honors Holocaust Remembrance

January 29, 2025

Andra and Tatiana Bucci survived the concentration camp at Auschwitz, liberated in January 1945. Here they are seen visiting a different concentration camp, now serving as a memorial museum.

When Allied forces liberated the Auschwitz Holocaust concentration camp, the day went down in history, particularly for one staff member. The military found 650 people still alive Jan. 27, 1945. Six decades later, the United Nations designated the day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Learn more about these devastating events at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on their website.

Jan. 27, 2025, marks 80 years since the liberation or Auschwitz-Birkenau. This solemn day is meant to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust as well as millions of other victims of Nazism. This observance is also meant as a way to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.

“This date in 1945 marks the day when my mother’s life started again,” said Sonia Edwards, CDCR Data Engineering and Governance Manager.

According to the Holocaust Museum, more than 230,000 children were sent to Auschwitz under the Nazis. Most went directly to their deaths.

Dozens of young children liberated

When the 650 people were liberated from the camp, 50 of them were children younger than 10.

“My mom and aunt were two of them,” said Edwards. “They were 4 and 6 years old when they were captured with 11 other family members. They were in the camp for nine months, having their childhoods eviscerated. Then, Russian soldiers liberated them in January 1945.”

For Edwards, it’s a somber occasion.

“This year it is the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. My mom is now 85 years old. Her story is one of many and it is an important story to tell,” she said. “As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, it is my job to keep passing her memory along, to make sure we do not forget the past.”

In 2019, the sisters visited another concentration camp.

“Thank you, Andra and Tatiana Bucci, Auschwitz survivors from Italy, for visiting Neuengamme concentration camp memorial. In the camp their cousin Sergio de Simone suffered medical experiments,” according to the camp memorial’s social media post.

Learn more about Andra and Tatiana Bucci at the Candle Holocaust Museum or watch the documentary, Always Remember Your Name (watch the video on YouTube).

Did you know? In 2019, Basic Parole Agent Academy instructors toured the Museum of Tolerance and the Anne Frank exhibit to learn more about the Holocaust. Read the story.

Story submitted by Government Alliance on Race and Equity.

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