D-Day #OnThisDay in 1944, helped turn the tide against the Nazis. Jews still in ghettos, concentration camps, and in hiding celebrated the invasion, hoping the end of the war was near. 📷: National Archives
Congratulations to Argentina on a successful first plenary of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. We addressed AI and Holocaust education; and the imperative to defend accurate Holocaust history, safeguard historical sites, and ensure open access to archives.
Defending accurate Holocaust history, supporting research and teaching about the Holocaust, fighting antisemitism, and more-the U.S. delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance(IHRA) is in Buenos Aires for the first IHRA plenary of the Argentinian presidency.
After the war, the western Allies established displaced persons camps in the Allied-occupied zones of Germany, Austria and Italy.
This photograph shows parents with their children during the festival of Shavuot in a DP camp, 1947.
May 7 was the groundbreaking for the new, state-of-the-art archive building for the Arolsen Archives' UNESCO-protected collection of records on victims and survivors of Nazi persecution, with more than 30 million documents on around 17.5 million people.
https://t.co/HFbYWdRW9g
Today I was delighted to brief a Polish group visiting as part of an exchange program on strengthening cultural institutions and preserving historical sites. These include Jewish heritage sites in Poland, which help educate about both the Holocaust and combating antisemitism.
We must use courage and clear vision to defend and transmit the truth of what happened at Mauthausen. Honored to join U.S. Ambassador Fisher at the Mauthausen commemoration today, speak at the U.S. memorial to victims, and attend other countries’ memorial events. @usembvienna
🇺🇸🕯🇦🇹 This May 10, 2026, Ambassador Fisher and the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain led a U.S. delegation to the International Liberation Ceremony at Mauthausen to honor the memory of those who suffered and perished at the camp, as well as the survivors and liberators. We stand united in remembering this dark chapter of history and reaffirm our commitment to confronting hate and antisemitism in all its forms. Together, we pledge to #NeverForget and to educate future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust. #NeverAgain #NiemalsWieder #WeRemember
@StateSEHI
@state_seas
@mauthausenkomitee
@mauthausenmemorial
@gusen_memorial@7thatc@usarmyeuraf
@eucomofficial
Around 71,000 people from across Europe were deported to the Gusen forced labor camp. Around 36,000 did not survive the horrific conditions. Today we honored the memory of the victims and commemorated the liberation of Gusen by the U.S. army on May 5, 1945.
"Ellen Germain, the U.S. government's special envoy for Holocaust issues, sees the distortion and falsification of historical accounts of the Shoah as an immense challenge." Listen on Deutschlandfunk's "Interview of the Week," Sunday at 11 am.
https://t.co/P0RDjpNF1z
May 8th marks Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, commemorating the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945 and the end of World War II in Europe.
This week, U.S. Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain @StateSEHI traveled to Berlin, where she met with German political leaders and Jewish organizations to advance cooperation on Holocaust remembrance, education, and restitution.
Her visit underscores the enduring U.S.-Germany partnership built over the 81 years since the war’s end.
“These efforts reflect our shared resolve to turn memory into action as we work to ensure that ‘Never Again’ becomes more than words.” — Special Envoy Germain
Deputy Chief of Mission Kami Witmer and Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain welcomed Lucy Waldstein to the Embassy. With her father, a newspaper editor, threatened, Ms. Waldstein’s family was forced to flee Austria under the Nazi regime and eventually found a new home in the United States.
The Waldstein family’s story reminds us of the freedoms we’ve fought so hard to uphold and why we pledge to #NeverForget. She will be a keynote speaker at this year’s Fest der Freude / Festival of Joy, an annual commemoration marking the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
The event will take place today at Vienna’s Heldenplatz at 7:30 p.m. and livestreamed by the Mauthausen Committee Austria on its YouTube channel.
Very good to see State Secretary Alexander Pröll again. The Austrian Federal Chancellery's engagement on Holocaust issues shows the depth and strength of the U.S.-Austrian partnership. @usembvienna
"When ‘Nazi’ becomes a catch-all term for any opponent, it distorts the reality of the unique 'racial' ideology that motivated the genocide of the Jewish people, which history now remembers as the Holocaust." I spoke today at the OSCE in Vienna on Holocaust distortion. @usosce