Before the representatives of the royal houses, heads of state and government from all over Europe arrive this afternoon, to commemo … flowers and candles in memory of the victims of the Nazi concentration camp after which the president of the country has taken the floor, Andrzej doubts. “We, the Poles, in whose land the Germans built this extermination field, we are the guardians of memory,” he said, denoting the intention of putting everything in place and making sure that Poland, despite hosting the memory of horror, it was not involved in crimes.
The ceremony has attended a delegation of former prisoners and the director of the Auschwitz Museum, Piotr Cywiński. Survivors have supported their hands on the death wall, as well as their children and grandchildren. They have kneeling and igniting candles. They have remained a few minutes reflecting, praying.
«Today we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former German field of Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a place of extermination mainly of Jews, but also of Poles and Russians. Concentration camps were built to carry out the extermination of the Jewish people. We continue today the mission of the cavalry captain Witold Pileckiwhich was allowed to lock in Auschwitz and then escaped, testifying to the crimes committed here, in the territories occupied by the Germans. As heirs of the Cavalry Captain Pilecki, we make sure that the memory of these crimes is not lost, so that such catastrophe of humanity never happens again. That is the meaning: this memory is kept so that it never happens again, ”said the president doubts his speech, after publicly praying for the approximately one hundred one hundred thousand people who died in Aschwitz:” Lord, grant them eternal rest. “
«This year, we want to focus very especially on survivors, in a special way because they are very advanced age. They will give the main speeches. We will focus on your message, “he explains Piotr Cywiński«It does not correspond to us to show them what they have to say, but I hope that their voices contain clues, calls aimed at understanding how to shape the world after Auschwitz. Today, with the phenomenal growth of populism, demagogy and informative chaos, we need very durable and unequivocal reference points. His experience is precisely that «.
One of the 50 guest survivors is Albrecht Weinbergwhich will turn a hundred years in March and ensures that it is very requested these days. Through the nurse who takes care of her in her own home, she has been informed of this invitation, as well as requests for interviews with journalists everywhere, “even Japan.” He survived the fields of Auschwitz, Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen, and three marches of death. «He has been in my head for 80 years. All I have to do is wash myself and see my prisoner number there, ”he says. And his message for the world is summarized in a few words: “Do not leave the suffering of people, not do as if nothing was happening.”
“I was eleven years old when they threw me from school,” he recalls the day that his friends were forbidden to play with him, and shows a black and white photo in which he appears with his two brothers, who died during the Holocaust. Three children look timidly, almost with anxiety, to the camera. It was taken in Berlin, in 1942. They hid the yellow Jewish stars under their coats to take the picture. They shouldn’t even have stepped on the street. “But Dieter, my older brother, was a reckless. He gave us a two little ones to go to take the photo », who intended to bring hope to his mother, who had already been deported. Albrecht is the only member of the family that survived.
On the part of Germany, they will listen to the speeches of four survivors, at the commemoration ceremony this afternoon, the federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeierthe federal chancellor Olaf Scholzthe president of the Bundesrat, ANKE REFLINGERand the vice president of the Bundestag, Petra Pau. The Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck And the Minister of Finance, Jörg Kukiesare also part of the German delegation, willing to show condolences and the historical responsibility of the country.
In coincidence with the anniversary, Elon Musk has addressed the members and supporters of the German right -wing German party, which according to the surveys will obtain 20% of the votes in the early elections of February 23, through a link of Video in which called to end German guilt and pay national pride. “Stay proud to be Germans,” he told them, remembering that German culture goes back thousands of years and suggesting that, “frankly, too much attention is paid to the fault of the past and we must leave it behind.”
The president of the Holocaust commemorative monument Yad Vashemhe has expressed his irritation. Tamibén The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, has commented that such statements about the greatness of Germany and the need to leave behind German guilt and Nazis crimes «sounded too familiar and more threatening, especially a few hours after the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz ».
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