Holocaust survivor to be Doug Emhoff’s guest at Biden’s State of the Union speech

US Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is extending his focus on Holocaust remembrance by inviting a Washington, DC-area survivor to be his guest at US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech tonight.

Ruth Cohen, who survived multiple concentration camps including Auschwitz, will join Emhoff at the annual policy address in Washington. Emhoff first met Cohen last year before International Holocaust Remembrance Day with his wife, US Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a press release from the White House.

This year, Emhoff spent International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed on January 27, at Auschwitz with Deborah Lipstadt, the US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. It was part of a six-day trip focused on antisemitism and Jewish life in Europe.

For the millions of victims of the Holocaust, and for the survivors like Ruth Cohen, we must commit to carry forth their lived experiences and give meaning to that timeless pledge: “never again.” pic.twitter.com/aKtF4Jrfcs

— Vice President Kamala Harris Archived (@VP46Archive) February 2, 2022

Cohen, meanwhile, last week traveled to Egypt to speak at that country’s second-ever International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration. Born in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1930, Cohen was just shy of 14 when her family was deported to Auschwitz; her mother, brother and cousins were killed but she and her father and sister survived, according to a biography on the website of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she has been a longtime volunteer.