Holocaust Remembrance Day : Auschwitz Was Liberated 70 Years Ago

January 27, 1945. Auschweitz was liberated. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2016, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it is fitting to listen carefully to the voices of witnesses - both victims and survivors. Their words are the heritage of all humankind. ~~~~~ "THEY EXPECTED THE WORST - NOT THE UNTHINKABLE." The words of Charlotte Delbo (1913 - 1985), a French writer, former prisoner of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She was an active member of the French Resistance, working, among other tasks, as an editor of underground newspapers. In March 1942, she was arrested by the Germans. After an investigation which lasted several months, in January 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz together with 229 other women of the resistance. Delbo received camp number 31,661. Author of many books, including "Aucun de nous ne reviendra" ("None of Us Will Return"). This quote is from the book "Auschwitz and After." ~~~~~ "NIGHT, NIGHT WITHOUT END. NO DAWN COMES." The words of Tadeusz Borowski (1922 - 1951), a Polish writer and poet, former prisoner of Auschwitz, Natzweiler-Dautmergen and Dachau-Allach. In February 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo while he was searching for his fiancée Maria, whom the Germans had previously taken. Both were detained in Pawiak Prison and then deported to Auschwitz. Borowski received camp number 119,198. After the war he described his camp experiences in poems and short stories. This quote is from his poem "Night over Birkenau."~~~~~ "WE, THE DEAD, ACCUSE!" The words from the poem of an anonymous Jewish Czech woman. As she walked to the gas chamber on March 8, 1944, she managed to hand her notes to one of the Sonderkommando prisoners. A poem written by her was sent from the camp to the city of Prague. In 1945 it was published as a part of a collection of selected poems, edited by Erich Kulka and Ota Kraus. ~~~~~ "WE HAVE A DARK PREMONITION BECAUSE WE KNOW." The words of Załmen Gradowski (ca. 1910 - 1944), a Polish Jew and former prisoner of Auschwitz. In November 1942, he was deported to the camp in Kiełbasin; in December, he was deported to Auschwitz with his whole family. During the selection on the ramp he lost his wife, mother and two sisters. He was forcefully conscripted to the Sonderkomanndo in Birkenau, and was one of the prisoners behind the Birkenau revolt of October 1944. It is possible that he was killed the same day during combat, or shot by the SS during the repressions after the revolt. He was the author of two scripts written in Yiddish, which he hid and which were later discovered after the war on the premises of Birkenau. This quote is from his manuscripts. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the Holocaust, which resulted in the destruction of nearly two-thirds of European Jewry, remains one of the most painful reminders of the world’s failure to protect the Jewish people for centuries before and during World War II. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Jewish media expert Oren Osterer in a podcast for International Holocaust Remembrance Day that anti-Semitism in Germany is “more widespread than we imagine.” Merkel said it is especially important to reach young people coming to Germany from countries where hatred of Israel and Jews is common. “You can try arguing again and again” to reeducate Holocaust deniers or anti-Semites, but in the end “you also have to set clearer boundaries...and let them know that this has no place in our society." The Chancellor, who attended Monday’s opening of an exhibition of 100 pieces of art by victims and survivors of ghettos and concentration camps, said she was moved that Israel’s Yad Vashem Memorial had been willing to send these items to Germany : “It shows that there is a close cooperation and a certain trust” between Germany and Israel’s Holocaust memorial. “It is something emotional and reminds us that we have an everlasting responsibility for what happened in the past -- for the Shoah. It is very, very important that each generation faces this German history, that each generation recognizes this history."