"People who survived these ordeals remembered them forever and tried with all their might to document them for the world to preserve in human memory and warn against their recurrence are passing away. New generations are born and grow up for whom this history is distant and old as if it does not concern them. Especially as they are so nightmarish that one would rather run away from the sorrows and tragedies than delve into them... People want to forget, belittle, deny their existence, and falsify history! But to ignore the criminal facts of this war and Holocaust is to renew this terrible threat,” she said.
“Today, I reflect with great regret that I have accomplished too little with my fervent messages from those years of war and extermination of my Jewish people from Poland and all the countries of Europe. For a long time, people were reluctant to listen, believe us and imagine for themselves until most of the survivors had departed from this world - until it became too late, and they could carry on boldly, brazenly, and unpunished with these arrogant marches of hatred and deafening screams of "Death to Jews, death to foreigners, death to refugees!". Death! To other people. It will come. No one will be spared. No one lives forever, neither the strong nor the weak - only remembrance. It is the only eternal thing from Generation to Generation,” said Halina Birenbaum.
Then the time came for Director of the Auschwitz Museum, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, to take the floor: “Meanwhile, here and now, we need to remind ourselves that the watchword “Never Again” did not originate after the war. It had already been heard in the camp. And that it was not a cry for an eternal memory but for mindfulness, a kind of motto for the future. And the times are such as we wanted and managed to create. There is still too little of this moral anxiety in our memories to make us question our all-too-frequent indifference. It is not the memory that the victims, former prisoners and survivors had in mind.
“I would therefore like to thank the Auschwitz survivors present here, and all those who are following these commemorative events through the media and the Internet… I implore everyone to observe a moment of silence, to reflect on their responsibility, indifference and commitment. This much we owe to the victims. It is, above all, what remembrance is meant to do, today,” Piotr Cywiński emphasized.
The next part of commemorative events, devoted to new technologies in the education about Auschwitz, was inaugurated by Ronald S. Lauder, Chairman of the New York Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation: “There are young people who know nothing about it. When people know nothing about the Nazis, and the gas chambers, and the horror, that’s when crimes like this can be repeated. That is why people, especially young people, must come to see it for themselves. But what do we do when there is a pandemic and no one can travel? We have developed a new concept – live remote tours with live guides.”
Next, Marek Zając presented one more unique tool to be applied for the purposes of education about camp history – the Auschwitz VR Project.
"Together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and the Polish company Real Invented Studio we are developing its virtual representation from the period of World War II and the Holocaust. The project is absolutely ground-breaking in various ways. It is characterized by outstanding precision. With great diligence and attention paid to details, basing on archive documents, historical photographs, and modern scans, in cooperation with Memorial historians”, he said.
“But it is crucial that, by the intermediary of this virtual space, the visitors equipped with VR goggles or watching it on 2D screens will always be assisted by guides and educators. It will never be a game or entertainment”, Marek Zając emphasized.
Auschwitz survivors also referred to the role and necessity of using new technologies by the Museum in its educational activity.
"I would stress that the possibility of using electronic devices, the development of the Internet and other devices that enable interested persons to see Auschwitz virtually, so to speak, without having to come here, is significant. Not everyone can, not everyone has the strength or means to come here from the end of Europe or even from other continents, but thanks to the development of these means and implementation of existing programmes increasingly introduced here in the Museum, they can observe... see, walk along the camp roads just like the prisoners,” said Bogdan Bartnikowski.
"I want the memory and knowledge of the Holocaust to protect us from further tragedies and ensure that we successfully counter new threats in every corner of the globe. Therefore, I am filled with hope that the latest Internet technology and painstaking efforts of the Auschwitz Birkenau State Memorial Museum, Director Piotr Cywiński and his dedicated team will soon make it possible for the knowledge and memory of the Holocaust to be present in schools all over the world through live Internet transmissions,” said Halina Birenbaum.
"When you walk with an online guide along the path that I walked under different conditions. I will not mince words, the path of my agony; don't think about it. Think primarily about yourselves, because the Internet is a very close and personal thing. Think about yourselves. What can I do, what should I do, so that something like this does not happen to you or me? Think of it as fate dealt out by man to his fellow man under different conditions that can, should and must be avoided. And that is the message for you,” said Marian Turski.
After the speeches by survivors, prayers were said within the premises of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp by rabbi Michael Schudrich, bishop Piotr Greger from the Roman Catholic Church, priestmonk Aleksander Mokriszczew from the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church as well as bishop Adrian Korczago from the Evangelical-Augsburg Church.
The commemoration finished with lighting candles by the monument in Birkenau.
It is estimated that at least 232 thousand children were deported to Auschwitz, including ca. 216 thousand of Jewish origin, 11 thousand Roma, ca. 3 thousand Poles, over 1 thousand Belarusians and several hundred Russians, Ukrainians and other. In total, ca. 23 thousand children and teenagers were registered in the camp, with slightly over 700 of them liberated in Auschwitz in January 1945.