MARIAN TURSKI
Marian Turski, a survivor, a journalist. He was born in 1926 and grew up in Łódź. In 1940 he entered the Litzmannstadt ghetto and later was sent to Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt. From 1958 he was a journalist working in politics. He is linked to the Jewish Historical Institute. He was, and still is, the spiritus rector of The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
"I was afflicted with amnesia. After all these experiences, I was afflicted by almost total amnesia, but always remembered my first day and could not free myself from the number B-9408. I know many who have tried to erase it, but it did not cause me pain. In this sense, I could not forget. However, besides the episodes there is just emptiness.
"How did I regain my memory? It was a strange story. I went through all the camps with a group of friends. After the war, out of our group of ten only six remained. We constantly met on the anniversary of the liberation, which occurred on 9 May in Theresienstadt. One of the ten was Shmuel Krakowski, long-standing director of the Yad Vashem archive, who had a number next to mine. We sat in his flat in Warsaw with our wives, when at a certain point he raised his glasses in a toast - to me. “Why to me?" "Because you saved my life."
""In the second part of the death march, 120 people were loaded into wagons and for three and half days we were stuck in the wagons. There were 36 corpses by the time we got to Buchenwald. You remember - we were in the wagon, they threw dead bodies into the corner. And you started to scream - here is my brother." And it was Szmuel Krakowski. I did not remember anything.
"The next day I came back to him and asked him to recount the events. It was not until half a year later that I decided to go to the Memorial. Then, I went alone, I wanted to cross the road from the ramp towards Kanada and the Saunas. First of all, I went to the places through which I passed."