Some of the few remaining survivors of Auschwitz returned to the notorious Nazi death camp yesterday as the world marked the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
Auschwitz was the largest of the extermination camps and has become a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of 6 million Jews, 1 million of whom died at the site from 1940 to 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.
Elderly former inmates, some wearing scarves in the blue-and-white stripes of their death camp uniforms, laid flowers at the site yesterday touching the camp’s Wall of Death in silence.
Photo: Reuters
About 50 survivors were expected yesterday at the main commemoration outside the gates of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. They were to be joined by dozens of leaders, including Britain’s King Charles III and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Four former inmates — Marian Turski, Janina Iwanska, Tova Friedman and Leon Weintraub — would speak at the main event, organizers said.
“When I arrived in Auschwitz and got off the train, I saw the pits where human corpses were burned, because the crematoria could not keep up,” Iwanska, a 94-year-old Warsaw-born survivor, told Agence France-Presse earlier this month.
Photo: Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was also in Poland for the ceremony, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch were expected.
However, there would not be speeches by politicians, Auschwitz Museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki said.
Speaking ahead of the anniversary, survivors around the world spoke about the need to preserve the memory of what happened when there would no longer be living witnesses.
They also warned about rising hatred and anti-Semitism in many countries and spoke of their fears about history repeating itself.
Organizers said it could be the last major anniversary with such a large group of survivors.
“We all know that in 10 years it will not be possible to have a large group for the 90th anniversary,” Sawicki said.
About 40 survivors of the Nazi camps agreed to talk before the anniversary.
In 15 countries, from Israel to Poland, Russia to Argentina, Canada to South Africa they told their stories, alone or surrounded by their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren — proof of their victory over absolute evil.
Julia Wallach, who is nearly 100, cannot talk about what happened without crying.
“It is too difficult to talk about, too hard,” she said.
The Parisian was dragged off a lorry destined for the gas chamber in Birkenau at the last minute.
However, hard as it is to relive the horrors, she insisted she would continue to give witness.
“As long as I can do it, I will do it,” she said.
Beside her, her granddaughter Frankie asked: “Will they believe us when we talk about this when she is not there?”
Esther Senot, 97, braved the Polish winter last month to go back to Birkenau with French high-school students. She kept a promise made in 1944 to her dying sister Fanny, who — laid out on the straw coughing up blood — asked her with her last breath to “tell what happened to us so that we are not forgotten by history.”
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS