various underground organisations with the primary goal of protecting life and human dignity.
Speaking in modern terms, I was the beneficiary of such activity, which enabled me to survive temporary breakdowns and the feeling of hopelessness in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Gusen II.
Such actions unleashed new energy, strengthened the sense of bonds, stimulated one to act against one's sense of powerlessness and loss of hope.
Two examples:
1) In 1941, Franciscan Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe voluntarily gave up his life for another convicted father of a large family.
2) In 1940, Calvary Capt. Witold Pilecki voluntarily allowed himself to be imprisoned in KL Auschwitz. He organised and participated in the camp resistance movement. He fled the camp in 1943 to convey the truth about Auschwitz to the world. He participated in the Warsaw Uprising. The Polish communist authorities executed him in 1948.
Two different personalities who demonstrated exceptional charisma, heroism and dedication in a place created for the extermination of people.
Their sacrifice has not been in vain. The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Martyrdom was established in Poland in 2017. The aim of the Institute is, among others, to commemorate people of different nationalities - victims of German Nazi crimes.
The Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk Association, established in Germany, has been operating since 1973. Its task is to reach agreement and reconciliation and to provide assistance in various forms to former prisoners of concentration camps and ghettos, regardless of their religion, views or beliefs.
On the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the association awarded all former prisoners of concentration camps a commemorative medal. The document attached to the medal reads:
"You have survived the atrocities of terror prevailing in the camps. But afterwards, your life was very difficult. And yet during this time, you have given great reasons for reconciliation. The rose flower reproduced on the medal, symbolises your message of reconciliation. We believe that your exemplary attitude will also affect others, not only for the mutual relations between Poles and Germans but that it will also become a role model, particularly for those nations, which today, represent an attitude of mutual intransigence. Your suffering in camps, ghettos or Nazi prisons, as well as your difficult life after the liberation, were not in vain. Of this, we are deeply convinced.
That's how it should be!
But it's not!
In many regions of the world today, people overcome by the fanaticism of political, racial or religious domination, or even personal domination, engage in acts of armed violence to achieve their personal goals. These acts of violence claim thousands of lives and thus bear all the hallmarks of genocide. Has history turned full circle? A circle propelled by people without respect for others' dignity.
Dear Participants of today's ceremony!
I am an optimist and believe in people, because in my life to date, excluding my stay in prisons and concentration camps, I have encountered greater good than bad from people.
In qualifying human deeds as good or bad, I am supported by a beautiful woman with a blindfold on her eyes. In her left hand, she carries a balance, and in her right hand, a sharp sword. I'll ask her to continue to stay with me.