Benjamin Orenstein, a famous survivor of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, died on Thursday in France at age 94.
Orenstein's Auschwitz tattoo was "B4416."
After Klaus Barbie's trial in Lyon in 1987, Orenstein started testifying in front of hundreds of students across France, from high schools to universities, recalling his story in an effort for future generations to never forget what happened during those dark times.
By testifying, he intended to make the students "witnesses of witnesses," so that "Never Again" can be perpetuated through the future generations.
Orenstein went back to Poland to lead memorial tours with schools and organizations, guiding the students into the death camps of Auschwitz, explaining to them, through his experience, what he and millions of others went through during the World War II.
Orenstein was born in 1926 into a Jewish family from Poland. In 1941 he was sent to a work camp by the occupying Nazis. When his family was arrested in autumn 1942, Orenstein was sent to the concentration camp of Auschwitz.
In January 1945, he joined the death march and arrived to the concentration camp of Dora. Eventually, he was liberated in April 1945 when the US military liberated the camp.if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";}
From his family - his father, his mother, his three brothers, his sister, his aunt and his eight-year-old niece - no one survived, except him.
After the end of the war, he settled in the French city of Lyon.
Many people and personalities took to social media in mourning of Benjamin Orenstein. The Israeli Mission to the UN in Geneva wrote that it was deeply saddened by his passing.
The European Jewish Congress also expressed its sadness on Twitter with the following statement.We are deeply saddened by the passing of Benjamin Orenstein z'l, a Holocaust survivor who dedicated the last decades of his life to sharing his story.— Israel in UN/Geneva (@IsraelinGeneva) February 10, 2021
He was with us @UNGeneva in 2019.
May his memory be a blessing & a guiding light for generations to come. #WeRemember pic.twitter.com/GTZUQYGtX3
We are deeply saddened to learn that Holocaust survivor Benjamin Orenstein z”l has passed away. He was an inspiration who dedicated his life to Holocaust education & made it his mission to ensure that the atrocities of the past would never be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/TQkItxhbJo— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) February 10, 2021
Alain Jakubowicz, President of League Against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA), also made a statement on the social media.
Il était le dernier. Benjamin Orenstein deporté a #Auschwitz a 18 ans a consacré sa vie à témoigner. Nous n’entendrons plus son merveilleux accent yiddish. Le matricule B4416 ne répondra plus. Désormais la mémoire va être encore plus difficile...— Alain Jakubowicz (@JakubowiczA) February 10, 2021
