We stand here before You, Honourable Survivors, in order to assume anew, in the presence of the Witnesses of the Holocaust, an obligation – thinking of those who perished, of You who have survived and of the future generations.
The genocide perpetrated here by the functionaries of the Nazi Third Reich, claimed more than one million three hundred thousand human lives. Among them were Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war – but first and foremost Jews, of whom over one million one hundred thousand were slain here.
We are speaking about numbers but these numbers represent concrete people, their histories and their suffering. We are speaking about numbers though we will surely never get to know the exact figure. We are speaking about numbers for we are in the factory of death. For the numbers make us realize the industrial nature of the crime committed here.
The Holocaust, of which Auschwitz is the main place and the main symbol, constituted an unexampled crime throughout the entire history. Here, the hatred, chauvinism, nationalism, racism, antisemitism assumed the form of a mass, organized, methodical murder. At no other time and at no other place was extermination carried out in a similar manner.
Jews from Poland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, Greece and from other occupied countries all over Europe were brought here in cattle cars, underwent selection and were deprived of all their belongings. And, in their vast majority, immediately killed in the gas chambers. And burned in the crematoria ovens. All of that took but a few hours, quarters, minutes. For years, the factory of death operated at full capacity. Smoke was rising from the chimneys, the transports were rolling. People walked and walked in their thousands. To meet their death.
It is hard to encompass it all with your mind. The magnitude of the crime perpetrated here is terrifying. But we must not look away from it. We must never forget it.
When the front was approaching, to put an end to the crime, the perpetrators attempted to obliterate its traces. They were destroying the buildings and the documents of the genocide. Having slain millions, they also wanted to wipe out the memory of them. However, their attempts failed. Witnesses were saved, of whom You, Honourable Survivors, are the last ones. And this very place has been preserved - the tangible evidence and the symbol of the Holocaust.
Hence, we stand here today, on the premises of the former German Camp Auschwitz. We stand all together and bow our heads before the suffering of the victims of this most horrendous crime in history. And before the Survivors, in the presence of the last Witnesses, we assume an obligation for the future.
In the name of the Republic of Poland,
- who was the first target of Nazi Germany`s aggression,
- whose territory was occupied and its nation subjected to terror,
- who established the largest European underground resistance movement against the Third Reich,
- whose soldiers were fighting against Germans on all fronts of WWII from the first to the last day of the war,
- whose six million citizens died at the hands of Nazis, including three million Jews,
- and who makes an utmost effort to preserve this place: the premises of the Auschwitz camp – as well as all other places of the Shoah: the former German camps located in our territory,
I have the privilege and honour to renew the obligation,
- which we, Poles, assumed back then when the Holocaust was being carried out,
- when our forefathers came to the aid of the murdered Jews, putting at risk their own lives,
- who were the first ones to reveal to the world the truth about the Shoah and demanded response from the world statesmen,
- the obligation to which we, the contemporary Poles, consistently adhere – also for the sake of the memory of our heroic compatriots, such as Witold Pilecki and Jan Karski: naszych bohaterskich rodakach, takich jak Witold Pilecki i Jan Karski – konsekwentnie trwamy:
zawsze pielęgnować pamięć i strzec prawdy o tym, co się tutaj wydarzyło.
Pragnę zaprosić zgromadzonych tu dziś Dostojnych Gości, przedstawicieli innych państw i narodów, a także instytucji międzynarodowych i wszystkich ludzi dobrej woli na całym świecie – do udziału w tym dziele. Niech będzie to nasze wspólne zobowiązanie, podjęte w obliczu ostatnich Ocalonych i Świadków: nieść dalej w przyszłość przesłanie i przestrogę dla całej ludzkości, które płyną z tego miejsca.
Fałszowanie historii II wojny światowej, zaprzeczanie zbrodniom ludobójstwa i negowanie Holokaustu oraz instrumentalne wykorzystywanie Auschwitz dla jakichkolwiek celów – to bezczeszczenie pamięci ofiar, których prochy są tutaj rozsypane. Prawda o Holokauście nie może umrzeć. Pamięć o Auschwitz musi trwać, żeby Zagłada nigdy więcej się nie powtórzyła.
Raz jeszcze dziękuję Wam, Czcigodni Ocaleni, za Wasze świadectwo i Waszą tu dzisiaj obecność.
Wieczna pamięć wszystkim ofiarom Auschwitz! Wieczna pamięć ofiarom Holokaustu!