Survivors and historians demand memory so that this “monstrous crime” is not repeated
The head of the UN human rights office warns of a "galloping" increase in anti-Semitism at a global level
The world will commemorate this Monday the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, where more than a million people were murdered by Nazi Germany, most of them Jews. Hundreds of acts of remembrance for the victims will serve this January 27 to put on the table the importance of confronting anti-Semitism and honoring those who perished during the Holocaust.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has recently insisted on Germany’s “great responsibility” in “keeping the memory alive” of the horrors that took place in these ‘death camps’ built by the Nazi regime during World War II and spread across several countries. It is estimated that eleven million people died during this period, six million of them due to the so-called ‘final solution’, which exterminated two thirds of the European Jewish population.
Scholz has shown clear opposition to anti-Semitic speeches, which have increased over the last year, and has expressed his “concern” about the “normalisation of this type of feeling, especially through social networks”. “There is a great threat to Jewish populations,” he lamented during a meeting with Jewish communities in Frankfurt.
“I am against turning the page, saying that it was too long ago,” he clarified before stressing the importance of explaining what happened to future generations. “Our responsibility will never end,” said the foreign minister, who believes that the stories of the Holocaust are not only historical but also “personal.”
The commemorative events that will take place in the camp, located in present-day Poland, will bring together leaders from around the world and will focus on the liberation of the camp at the hands of the Red Army and the global impact of the genocide, with special emphasis on the need to achieve communities “free of hate” through an “inclusive” discourse, as indicated by the Polish authorities.
The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, has recalled that the country is now a “safe haven for Jews” and has asked the government not to arrest the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he sets foot in the country on the occasion of the event despite the fact that there is an arrest warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to the Israeli offensive launched against Gaza, where more than 47,000 people have already died.
“The importance of these anniversaries lies in the possibility of meeting for the last time with the survivors, who have the opportunity to give their testimony, which is essential for the security of the world and for the protection of human dignity and its values,” explained Duda.
After the brief dispute between Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the possible arrest of Netanyahu, the latter has ended up endorsing his presence at the event and has guaranteed the safety of the Israeli delegation, which will finally be headed by the Minister of Education, Yoav Kisch. In this regard, sources close to the Israeli government indicate that the Prime Minister does not plan to attend.
For his part, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned that what happened “can happen again” and has pointed out that “commemorations of this type allow us to recognise the past” although “they must also serve to examine the present and look to the future.”
Turk has taken the opportunity to denounce that “the rhetoric of hate” continues to be heard “in much of the world.” “Anti-Semitism is growing at a galloping pace, on the streets and on the Internet. Jews face increasing intimidation, threats and violence,” she said.
“Too often, discrimination and dehumanisation continue to win out over solidarity and compassion; diversity is seen as a threat rather than something to be treasured, and many leaders are undermining and weakening the rule of law,” she said before stressing the importance of fighting for dignity and against “intolerance.”
VICTIMS AND TESTIMONIES
Margot Friedlander, one of the last survivors of the Holocaust, stressed that time has not passed for her. The 103-year-old woman reaffirmed that it is the survivors who “know what happened and how it was.” Friedlander was a prisoner at the Theresienstadt camp in Terezin, Czech Republic, while her mother and brother were murdered at Auschwitz. “I lost my whole family,” he told the DPA news agency.
On the rise of extremism and far-right discourse in Europe, Friedlander regretted that “it started like that then too.” “Be careful. Don’t do it. Respect people, that’s the most important thing,” she said.
Andrea Low, director of the Munich Center for Holocaust Studies, stressed that the figures from Auschwitz and the Holocaust reflect a “monstrous crime” and argued that testimonies help new generations to “give dimension” to what happened. “They were people like you and me who were torn from their lives,” she added.
The director of the historical memory center located in the house where the Wannsee Conference was held, where the implementation of the ‘final solution’ was designed, Deborah Hartmann, has advocated avoiding terms such as “unimaginable” or “incomprehensible.”
HISTORY OF THE CAMP
The camp was created in 1940 near Oswiecim, in occupied Poland. Initially intended as a prison for Poles rounded up during mass roundups, it eventually became the largest extermination centre for European Jews once deportations began in 1942.
Of the approximately 1.3 million people deported to Auschwitz, some 1.1 million, including around one million Jews, are believed to have perished there, according to data from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Some 900,000 Jews were murdered in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival at the camp and their bodies burned in the crematorium.
In addition, around half of the 400,000 prisoners registered at the camp perished there. Separated by ethnicity, the number included about 100,000 Jews, 70,000 Poles, more than 20,000 Gypsies and about 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war, although there were also dissidents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and communists, among others.
The extermination camp played a significant role in the German plan to murder European Jews. By the end of 1943, trains were arriving at Auschwitz regularly with Jews from all German-occupied European countries, from Norway to the Greek island of Rhodes, off Turkey.
The camp was made up of two parts. The so-called Auschwitz I camp, which held about 15,000 prisoners, and the Birkenau camp, located about three kilometres from Oswiecim, where most of the victims were murdered. Birkenau held more than 90,000 prisoners in 1944.
Several days before its liberation, the Germans forced nearly 60,000 exhausted prisoners to march west to other concentration camps. An estimated 9,000 to 15,000 of them perished on the death march. When the Soviet Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945, only about 7,000 prisoners were found.
