Today marks
a very special day in human history. It
is only one day that is part of the story of 12 years of horror, starvation,
cruelty and atrocities by the Nazi’s against millions of innocent people. It is important that we take time to
recognize and remember this day. January
27, 2015 is exactly seventy years since the liberation of Auschwitz, the
largest concentration camp established by the Germans. Auschwitz included a
concentration camp, a killing center, and forced-labor camps. It was located 37
miles west of Krakow (Cracow), near the prewar German-Polish border. [i] On January 27, 1945 the Russian Army reached the gates of Auschwitz.
An estimated 1.1 million
people, most of them Jews, were murdered in Auschwitz, in German-occupied
Poland, between 1941 and 1945.[ii] It is a staggering number. More people died at Auschwitz than the
combined losses of the American and British military troops during the
war. Disease, starvation, firing squads,
and the infamous gas chambers disguised as showers took the lives of over one
million gypsies, homosexuals, individuals with disabilities and Jews. Auschwitz has been described as the world’s
biggest Jewish graveyard; it has become the symbol of the holocaust.
This year there will be several ceremonies at
the camp to mark this day in history.
For many of the survivors, this may be their last time make the journey
to the camps to remember and to honor those who were murdered there. As each year passes, we are losing these
eyewitness survivors. There is a great
effort underway by the Shoah Foundation and others to document their stories,
before it is too late.
I am always so moved by the stories
of these survivors; their courage is almost beyond comprehension.
I feel a special connection to the Jews of Eastern Europe; my great
grandmother was born in Warsaw. I am so grateful that she left for
America when she was a young girl; I cannot help but think about what might
have happened if she stayed. Would she have been at Auschwitz or one of
the other horrible Nazi concentration camps? Would she have been one
of the few 'lucky ones' who survived, or would she have perished along
with so many others?
Many people describe the holocaust as
‘unthinkable’, but it did happen and we must acknowledge what people are
capable of – so these kinds of atrocities will never again happen.
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