AFP — Eight decades after the Holocaust, its memory is at a “crossroads” as survivors who can offer firsthand accounts of the horrors of Nazi-era Europe dwindle, said the head of an Israeli memorial center.

Dani Dayan, chairman of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem institution, told AFP that nothing can truly replace the “authentic voices” of survivors of the systematic murder of Jewish people in retelling that painful chapter of history.

But as they grow older and their number declines, “we are essentially at a crossroads of generations,” Dayan said in an interview ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

“Listening to a Holocaust survivor tell their story will not be possible in a few years. It’s unfortunate, but it is inevitable,” he said.

A study conducted last year found that around 245,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust remained alive.

Their median age was 86, with some well over 100 years old, according to the study by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

“Holocaust survivors were a kind of bridge,” said Dayan.

“On one side of the bridge, we are looking into their eyes, hearing their voices, and on the other side of that bridge is Auschwitz. That will not exist anymore.”

The Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates........

© The Times of Israel