At the age of 98, a journalist, historian and former prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz Marian Turski died on Tuesday in Warsaw, who has been chairman of the International Auschwitz Committee (IAK) associating the Holocaust survivors and their organizations from 19 countries since 2021. TASR informs about this, referring to PAP and DPA. Information about the death of the Turski was brought by the weekly Polityka, where he was an editor for many years.
Marian Turski was born on June 26, 1926 in the Lithuanian city of Druskininkai in the family of Polish Jews as Mosze Turbowicz. After the outbreak of World War II, he and his family found himself in 1942 in a ghetto in Lodz. His relatives then deported to Auschwitz. Turski managed to avoid the deportation until August 1944, when he found himself in one of the last transports to this concentration camp.
In January 1945 he survived the death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp and in April, when US troops approached him, he also survived the march to Terezin. There, sick of typhoid, waited until his liberation.
After the war he settled in Warsaw. Since 1945 he was active in the youth organization of the Polish Workers ‘Party (PPR), then worked in the press department of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). In 1957 he became a publicist and since 1958 he was the head of the historical section of the weekly Polityka.
Turski has won many awards during his lifetime. In addition to Ik, he worked in other organizations – among other things, he was chairman of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Jewish Veterans and Victims of World War II.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, he gave a speech on 27 January 2020, in which he said, among other things: “Auschwitz has not fallen from heaven. Don’t be indifferent when you see lies about history. Don’t be indifferent when you see the past are twisted to suit current policy. Do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated on”. At the same time, he suggested that the eleventh commandment would be introduced, which would sound: “Don’t be indifferent.”
