The Moment She Lost Her Family Captured in a Photo

A Live Program on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The scene is seared in Irene Weiss’s memory. One minute she was holding hands with her younger sister. The next, a Nazi officer separated them with his baton, and 11-year-old Edith was swallowed into a crowd, unknowingly bound for a gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Decades later, Irene discovered the most painful moment of her life had been documented by a Nazi photographer. She saw her 13-year-old self, wearing a scarf and leaning forward, searching for Edith.

As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Irene will share the story of the day her family was torn apart.

Photo: USHMM (historic image Yad Vashem)