OUR PASSIVITY IS THE GREATEST SOURCE OF VICTIMS. 76TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ
The main part of the ceremony was inaugurated by the speeches of two Auschwitz Survivors – Zdzisława Włodarczyk and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.
Zdzisława Włodarczyk was born on August 21, 1933. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising on August 1st 1944 her family was arrested by the Germans and deported to Auschwitz in one of the first transports to Warsaw on August 8.
‘Nights were the hardest... children were crying, calling their moms while sleeping... Whining and moaning, but then, they became silent, as they knew that no one would come to caress their head... no one would touch or hug... they were dying alone. Why?’, she said.
‘Children were born in the camp, but they were not given the right to live as they were killed immediately. They had no names and they didn't even have their numbers. How many of these children perished? Why? Were we the enemies of the Third Reich?’, former prisoner emphasized.
‘I wish there were no more wars, such wars. Now the whole world is affected by the coronavirus epidemic. Isn't it a war too? People are far away from one another, children can't play together, they become nervous and will suffer trauma, too. And there is suffering. And people are dying alone. Why? The world was not careful enough’, Zdzisława Włodarczyk summarized her speech.
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was born in 1925 in Wrocław (then Germany). She was arrested in September 1942 at the Wrocław railway station under the pretext of heading towards France using forged documents. She was incarcerated at Auschwitz on November 29, 1943. She received the number 69388. She become a member of the female camp orchestra, where she played the cello. In the second half of the year 1944, she was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where she lived to see the end of the war.
‘I arrived at these gates in late 1943 without the slightest illusions. One knew what was happening here. I was eighteen years old and expected to be turned into smoke. That I'm still alive is thanks to the absurd turns that life can take. Believe it or not, there was music in this inferno and because I could play the cello I'm still here to tell the tale,’ she said.
‘I appeal to you, the people so many generations after the event, do not let us down, do not allow the memory to be distorted and poisoned by the ugly resurgence of xenophobia and antisemitism,’ she added
‘Conquer our fear of what we don't know. Build bridges, talk to each other, celebrate your differences because in reality, we have more in common than separates us. Today, we are facing a new challenge, a challenge with no respect for race, colour or religion and invisible enemy. A virus without a price tag on human lives. Today let us honour the people who were senselessly murdered here. And never, never ever forget,’ Anita Lasker Wallfisch emphasized.
Children in the camp constituted the theme of the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, on January 27 the events commemorating the anniversary were exceptionally held not at the Memorial Site, but online.