-VI-
In the National Archives in Brussels, there are lists of names of those deported from the Dossin Barracks; on a wall are photographs of the 25,836 deportees. There's Golda's, but not Madrich's, as no photographs of her exist15. We will never know her face, the colour of her hair and eyes, or her smile.
-VII-
Today, on the lieu where Madrich Berliner Luftig was born, there is
a memorial. It is a Stolperstein16. 10 cm x 10 cm are the dimensions of the memorial. Observing this cubic brass surface provokes our reflection. A girl's name, the dates, the names Auschwitz and Birkenau, everything merges in
a conflagration. This inscription on
a street pavement is a shock. One night we found a small, proportionate, colourful hopscotch board drawn with care and delicacy as an extension of the Stolperstein. We guess it wasn't made for playing, it was a fragile and defenceless exercise of memory that the rain would erase again if it weren't for these trembling words. It was like seeing a small yellow flower grow next to the barracks at Auschwitz and Birkenau or in the last few meters of the train track that came from Warsaw and stopped at the terrifying platform of the Nazi Treblinka camp. Before our eyes, a colossal and unconscious exercise in memory unfolded. This innocence continues to fragment our souls, and words are still slow to return from the silence. The image still forms in our minds as a very complex plan17. That of horror. That of the camps created by Nazi Germany. The small memorial for Madrich contains within it an enormous terrain and the abyss of millions of murdered lives. And their ashes.
-VIII-
The article's opening quote is preceded by the expression "In this respect." With this expression, Cywiński alludes to childhood and to those born in the camps18. As recorded in The Book of Names, Madrich Berliner Luftig was
a girl whose life was robbed at the age of four. One day, reflection on Auschwitz will clearly become the claim of the right to life, which, as Edith Eger always maintains, is the greatest gift imaginable.
Arendt, Hannah, Los orígenes del totalitarismo. Alianza Editorial. Madrid. 2022.
Cywiński, Piotr M. A., Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Oświęcim. 2023.
Eger, Edith, The Choice. Even in Hell hope can flower. Penguin Random House. UK. 2017.
The Gift. Penguin Random House. UK. 2024.
The Ballerina of Auschwitz. A dramatic retelling of The Choice. Penguin Random House. UK. 2024
Levi, Primo, The Periodic Table, Penguin Random House. UK. 1986.
Preston, Paul, La Guerra Civil española. Penguin Random House. UK. 2017.
Tuytens, Sven, Las mamás belgas. La lucha de un grupo de enfermeras contra Franco y Hitler. Editorial El Mono Libre. Madrid. 2019.
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16 The Stolperstein are the memory project of the artist Gunter Demnig (b. 1947).
17 This term, which appears in the title of this article, intentionally seeks to maintain the ambiguity of its meaning. One meaning is "plan," understood as the design of a space, a building, etc. Another meaning is "plan" as the organization and preparation of the most optimal way to execute an idea, a plan. This second meaning echoes the terrible Wannsee Conference (Berlin) held on January 20, 1942.
18 The allusion corresponds to the Chapters “Children” (pages 329-341) and “Births” (pages 341-351) of from the cited book of Cywiński.