Holocaust survivor and educator Marianne Miller will address the U.N. General Assembly on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Jan. 27, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The event will be held at 11 a.m. EST (6 p.m. in Israel).
Born in Budapest during World War II, Miller endured the horrors of the Holocaust, including the forced separation of her family and the murder of multiple close relatives. Despite the unimaginable hardships, she survived and later dedicated her life to educating future generations about the Holocaust and the dangers of hatred and intolerance.
This year marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than 1.2 million people, including 400,000 Hungarian Jews, were murdered. Miller will highlight the need for vigilance against rising antisemitism and the imperative to preserve the memory of the Holocaust for future generations. She will deliver her remarks accompanied by her four children and seven grandchildren.
“I will speak not only in my name but in the name of the 6 million Jews who were murdered and who watching us from the heavens,” Miller, who lives in Israel, said ahead of her visit to the United States for the commemoration event.
Miller’s journey to the United Nations began following her participation in the 2024 International March of the Living, where she shared her story of survival with thousands of participants joining commemorative marches through Budapest in Hungary and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. There, she expressed her dream of addressing world leaders at the United Nations to tell her story. Following the march, Revital Yakin-Krakovsky, deputy CEO of the International March of the Living, approached Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, who worked to make the dream a reality.
“After learning about Marianne Miller’s incredible story, I invited her to share her moving and courageous story on the U.N. stage. Marianne and Holocaust survivors are our moral voice, reminding the world that the Holocaust is not just a historical memory, but a call to action for the values of justice and morality,” said Danon.
“Memory does not sustain itself,” he said, “it must be protected, fought for, and nurtured to ensure it is not erased. This year, on Yom Hashoah, I will be leading a delegation of U.N. ambassadors to the International March of the Living in Poland to bear witness and to ensure that this will never happen again.”
“Marianne is a voice of hope, optimism, love, and strength,” said Yakin-Krakovsky. “She carries the stories of those who were brutally murdered by the Nazis while representing the resilience of the survivor generation. I thank Ambassador Danon for his dedication in helping Marianne realize her dream of speaking on the world’s most important stage.”
The day after her U.N. address, the Israeli-American Council in New York will host a special screening of “The Ring,” a film written, directed and starring Miller’s son, Adir Miller. The movie, based on Miller’s own experiences during the Holocaust, tells the moving story of a mother’s extraordinary courage in saving her baby from the Nazis.
“The Ring” has resonated with audiences across Israel, drawing more than 240,000 viewers in just a few weeks.
The public can watch the U.N. commemoration event live at the following links:
