Survivors of Auschwitz warned of the dangers of rising anti-Semitism on Monday as they marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi Germany’s death camp by Soviet troops, in one of the last gatherings of those who experienced its horrors.
The ceremony at the site of the camp, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland during World War II to murder European Jews, was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, British King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron , Polish President Andrzej Duda and many other leaders.
They did not intend to give speeches, but rather to listen, perhaps for the last time, to those who suffered and witnessed one of humanity’s greatest atrocities.
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Israel, founded by Jews in the shadow of the Holocaust, sent Education Minister Yoav Kisch.
“We see in today’s modern world a great rise in anti-Semitism, and it was anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust,” said Marian Turski, 98, who was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and survived the “death march” to Buchenwald in 1945. .
“Let’s not be afraid to convince ourselves that we can solve problems between neighbors.”
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SURVIVORS SAY ANTI-SEMITISM IS SPREADING ONCE AGAIN
Retired doctor Leon Weintraub, 99, who was separated from his family and sent to Auschwitz in 1944, warned of the dangers of intolerance.
“I urge you to multiply your efforts to combat the views whose effects we are remembering today,” he said.
Retired pharmacist Janina Iwanska, a Polish Catholic, said that “80 years after liberation, the world is in crisis again.”
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“Our Judeo-Christian values have been overshadowed around the world by prejudice, fear, suspicion and extremism,” she said, “and the rampant anti-Semitism that is spreading among the nations is shocking.”
Anti-Semitic incidents have increased in part along with protests against Israel in many parts of Europe, North America and Australia since Israel launched its attack on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza following attacks on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said on Monday that hatred of Jews was rising in the context of this war, adding: “Young people are getting most of their information from social media, and that is dangerous.”
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Before the ceremony, which took place in a tent built over the gate of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, leaders emphasized the importance of preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
“The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in doing so we inform our present and shape our future,” said King Charles during a visit to the Jewish Community Center in Krakow.
President Duda told reporters at the camp that “we Poles, on whose lands the Germans built this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory.”
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Remembering the crimes committed in the name of Nazi notions of racial superiority has become an acute political issue in recent years with the rise of far-right parties across Europe.
MUSK REJECTS HISTORICAL GUILT FOR SINS OF THE PAST
On Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk, a high-level advisor to US President Donald Trump, gave a video speech to supporters of the AfD (Alternative for Germany), which is in second place in the polls for the 23 election. February, on a platform that includes minimizing historical guilt for the Holocaust.
“Children should not be blamed for the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” said Musk, who laid a wreath at Auschwitz a year ago.
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The rally prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to say that “the words we heard from the main actors at the AfD meeting about ‘Greater Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded very familiar and threatening.”
More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, died in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, where most were taken in boxcars like cattle.
More than 3 million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
In total, between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, as well as Gypsies, sexual minorities, people with disabilities, and others who offended Nazi ideas of racial superiority.
Pawel Sawicki, spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, said politicians would not be giving speeches on Monday.
“It is clear to all of us that this is the last milestone anniversary where we can have a group of survivors who can be present at the scene,” he said.
“In 10 years, this will not happen, and while we can, we must listen to the voices of survivors, their testimonies, their personal stories. This is something of enormous importance when we talk about how the memory of Auschwitz is shaped.”
