#WeRemember Holocaust Memorial Campaign Reaches 150 Million People

A global social media campaign encouraging millions of people to raise awareness about the Holocaust is rapidly spreading. Will you join it?

By: United with Israel Staff

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) has launched a global campaign encouraging millions of people to use social media to raise awareness about the Holocaust.

The campaign calls on people in every country to hold up a sign with the words “We Remember,” and post it on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #WeRemember.

Images posted to social media will be live streamed on the grounds of the former Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp from January 24 to January 27, when International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked.

On these same dates, the words “We Remember” will be projected onto the façade of Tel Aviv’s City Hall.

The campaign is in its second week and has already reached more than 150 million people through social and conventional media and outreach.

“Around the world today, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and hatred of others continue to rear their ugly heads. We must remember because there are fewer and fewer survivors among us, and within just a few decades, all will have passed. We must remember because ‘never again’ seems to happen again and again,” said WJC President Ronald Lauder. “It is now the responsibility of the younger generation to teach their friends about the horrors of hatred, and to spread the message that never again must mean never again.”

Simple Yet Meaningful Task

More than 250 million people were reached in a 2017 campaign, with participants including heads of state, celebrities and average people from around the world. This year, the WJC hopes to reach 500 million people.

Since the 2018 campaign began on Jan. 8, more than 150 million people have been reached via social media, conventional media and physical activities, with active participation by more than 800,000. The estimated global participation in the campaign so far stands at 150,000 people, including those posting WeRemember signs, sharing and actively supporting the campaign on social media, and posting content about the Holocaust with the WeRemember hashtag. The campaign is currently active in 50 countries, and in 24 languages, including Chinese and Arabic.

Participants so far include: the Chelsea Football Club team and owner Roman Abramovich; Israel’s leading sports teams such as Hapoel Katamon, Maccabi Haifa, Hapoel Beer Sheva, in soccer, and Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball; leading Muslim clergy from around the world, including the chief imam of India; and top figures in Europe and North America, including the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, head of the German Evangelical Church Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould, and Croatian president Kolinda Greber-Kitrovic, among others.

The goal of the campaign is to ask people around the world to do a simple yet meaningful task that would inspire conversation and help teach a new generation. Through multi-lingual videos and posts, the international community became aware of the campaign and started posting their pictures.

United with Israel is a partner in the campaign and has called on its supporters to join the global wave of remembrance.

We must honor the past and protect the future. We must ensure that these stories are not forgotten so that we can educate the next generation. Post your picture with #WeRemember.