Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

When I went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, it changed my life forever. I was overwhelmed with emotion while I paid my respects to all those who lost their lives. I learned so many new things while I was there—to the extent that I was shocked by how little I actually knew about Auschwitz and the holocaust.

Something I was surprised to learn when I visited the Memorial was that there were prisoners who performed music at Auschwitz every day.

I recently came across the song “Die schönste Zeit das Lebens,” which Auschwitz prisoners arranged and performed. “Die schönste Zeit das Lebens” means “The best time in my life.”

University of Michigan students recorded themselves playing the song, which you can listen to here:

How does the song make you feel?

If you just listen to the song, it sounds so beautiful and upbeat. But, when you think of the environment it was played in and the pain the people there endured, the song is extremely haunting.

May we remember all the people who had their lives taken away from them, and may we live our lives fully and with love in our hearts out of respect for them.