When we talk about the Auschwitz Memorial Site today; it is important we remember that it is a place of multiple memories. Respect for these different views is very important.
K.K.: Absolutely, yes! We cannot confine ourselves to our group, and we need to have a lot of forbearance and understanding for different views because each of us has had our share of trauma from this place. Naturally, we must also fight for our rights and remind them that a lot of Poles died in Auschwitz and that the local population also supported the resistance movement. It's good for the world to remember that because I have the impression that it has forgotten about it at some point and attempts to place this story in some false frames.
The Auschwitz Museum is no stranger to you. How is your contact with the Memorial Site?
K.K.: I hesitated for a long time whether to come here at all. It wasn't until I was twenty-seven that I went there for the first time. Personally, it was a very difficult matter for me. I had the impression that I was not ready. It is great that the Museum advocates a professional approach; that it employs true historians who convey authentic, source-based history and do not yield to any pressure - this at least is my impression that it does not deviate from presenting something more intensively in one direction or the other. It seems to me that given the complexity of the issues involved, the Auschwitz Museum is properly serving its purpose. If there is an opportunity to highlight the history of the Polish resistance movement a little more, I am all for it. I would not subscribe to those voices that I have heard saying that everything is being done wrong here, under the dictates of some foreign entity. I have the impression that this is not the case at all.
The educational sessions I had the opportunity to participate in were very interesting. They cover a wide range of subjects and show history from a more Polish or more Jewish perspective. I have seen the Roma visiting Auschwitz. I imagine that reconciling these different narratives is very difficult, but I think the Museum is doing quite well. There must be some sort of fusion of the different views of those who were victims. Numerically, everything speaks in favour of Jewish suffering. The majority of them died, and they were above all the "target" of the German Nazis. However, I am extremely irritated when we are marginalised, and people say that Poles are "accomplices to the Holocaust, period". I disagree with such comments. We need to educate the West in this regard, but the question is, how can we do this effectively. All those the Germans succeeded in sending to this camp suffered inexpressibly. It would be a pity for us all to be divided today, when, in spite of everything, such suffering and memory should, in a way, unite us. sobie radzi. Musi istnieć jakiś rodzaj fuzji różnych spojrzeń tych osób, które były ofiarami. Liczbowo wszystko przemawia za cierpieniem żydowskim. Ich zginęło najwięcej i to oni byli „na celowniku” niemieckich nazistów przede wszystkim. Jednakże szalenie irytuje mnie to, kiedy gdzieś jesteśmy marginalizowani i mówi się o Polakach, że to są „współsprawcy Holokaustu i kropka”. Ja się absolutnie na coś takiego nie zgadzam! Uważam, że musimy Zachód w tym zakresie edukować, tylko pytanie w jaki sposób to robić skutecznie. Wszyscy, których udało się Niemcom zagnać do tego obozu, cierpieli w sposób niewysłowiony. Szkoda, żebyśmy wszyscy się dziś dzieli, kiedy mimo wszystko takie cierpienie, pamięć o nim, w pewien sposób powinny jednoczyć.
Sukienka Diny Kasten