This is likely to be one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced the Nazi death camp’s horrors
27 January 2025 - 10:25
byBarbara Erling and Kuba Stezycki
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Holocaust survivors attend an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Brzezinka, Poland. January 27 2025. Picture: REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL
Oswiecim — Auschwitz survivors warned of the dangers of rising anti-Semitism on Monday, as they marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops in one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced its horrors.
The ceremony at the site of the camp, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland during World War 2 to murder European Jews on a huge scale, was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain’s King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and many other leaders.
They did not make speeches, but rather listened for perhaps the last time to those who suffered and witnessed at first hand one of humanity’s greatest atrocities.
Israel, founded for Jews in the shadow of the holocaust, sent education minister Yoav Kisch.
“We see in the modern world today a great increase in anti-Semitism, and it was anti-Semitism that led to the holocaust,” said Marian Turski, 98, who was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and survived the westward “death march” to Buchenwald in 1945.
“Let’s not be afraid to convince ourselves that we can solve problems between neighbours.”
A deportation of Hungarian Jews arrives via cattle cars to Auschwitz. File photo: SUPPLIED
Retired physician Leon Weintraub, 99, who was separated from his family and sent to Auschwitz in 1944, warned of the dangers of intolerance.
“I ask you to multiply your efforts to counteract the views whose effects we are commemorating today,” he said.
Author and academic Tova Friedman, 86, said “80 years after the liberation, the world is again in crisis”.
“Our Jewish-Christian values have been overshadowed worldwide by prejudice, fear, suspicion and extremism,” she said, “and the rampant anti-Semitism that is spreading among the nations is shocking.”
anti-Semitic incidents have surged in part with protests against Israel in many parts of Europe, North America and Australia since Israel launched its assault on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza after attacks on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said on Monday that hatred of Jews was rising against the backdrop of that war, adding: “Young people are getting most of their information from social media, and that is dangerous.”
Before the ceremony, which took place in a tent built over the gate to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, leaders stressed how important it was to preserve the memory of the holocaust.
“The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in so doing we inform our present and shape our future,” King Charles said during a visit to the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow.
Duda told reporters at the camp that “we Poles, on whose land the Germans built this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory”.
That remembrance of crimes committed in the name of Nazi notions of racial superiority has itself become an acutely political issue in recent years with the rise of far-right parties across Europe.
On Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk, high-profile adviser to US President Donald Trump, made a video address to supporters of Germany’s AfD (Alternative fuer Deutschland), which is running second in polls for the February 23 election on a platform that includes playing down historical guilt for the holocaust.
“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” said Musk, who himself laid a wreath at Auschwitz a year ago.
The rally prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to say that “the words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous”.
More than 1.1-million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, where most had been brought in freight wagons, packed like livestock.
More than 3-million of Poland’s 3.2-million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
In all, between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered 6-million Jews across German-occupied Europe, with Gypsies, sexual minorities, disabled people and others who offended Nazi ideas of racial superiority.
Update: January 27 2025 This story has been updated with new information.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Auschwitz survivors warn of rising anti-Semitism
This is likely to be one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced the Nazi death camp’s horrors
Oswiecim — Auschwitz survivors warned of the dangers of rising anti-Semitism on Monday, as they marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops in one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced its horrors.
The ceremony at the site of the camp, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland during World War 2 to murder European Jews on a huge scale, was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain’s King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and many other leaders.
They did not make speeches, but rather listened for perhaps the last time to those who suffered and witnessed at first hand one of humanity’s greatest atrocities.
Israel, founded for Jews in the shadow of the holocaust, sent education minister Yoav Kisch.
“We see in the modern world today a great increase in anti-Semitism, and it was anti-Semitism that led to the holocaust,” said Marian Turski, 98, who was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and survived the westward “death march” to Buchenwald in 1945.
“Let’s not be afraid to convince ourselves that we can solve problems between neighbours.”
Retired physician Leon Weintraub, 99, who was separated from his family and sent to Auschwitz in 1944, warned of the dangers of intolerance.
“I ask you to multiply your efforts to counteract the views whose effects we are commemorating today,” he said.
Author and academic Tova Friedman, 86, said “80 years after the liberation, the world is again in crisis”.
“Our Jewish-Christian values have been overshadowed worldwide by prejudice, fear, suspicion and extremism,” she said, “and the rampant anti-Semitism that is spreading among the nations is shocking.”
anti-Semitic incidents have surged in part with protests against Israel in many parts of Europe, North America and Australia since Israel launched its assault on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza after attacks on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said on Monday that hatred of Jews was rising against the backdrop of that war, adding: “Young people are getting most of their information from social media, and that is dangerous.”
Before the ceremony, which took place in a tent built over the gate to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, leaders stressed how important it was to preserve the memory of the holocaust.
“The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in so doing we inform our present and shape our future,” King Charles said during a visit to the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow.
Duda told reporters at the camp that “we Poles, on whose land the Germans built this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory”.
That remembrance of crimes committed in the name of Nazi notions of racial superiority has itself become an acutely political issue in recent years with the rise of far-right parties across Europe.
On Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk, high-profile adviser to US President Donald Trump, made a video address to supporters of Germany’s AfD (Alternative fuer Deutschland), which is running second in polls for the February 23 election on a platform that includes playing down historical guilt for the holocaust.
“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” said Musk, who himself laid a wreath at Auschwitz a year ago.
The rally prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to say that “the words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous”.
More than 1.1-million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, where most had been brought in freight wagons, packed like livestock.
More than 3-million of Poland’s 3.2-million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
In all, between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered 6-million Jews across German-occupied Europe, with Gypsies, sexual minorities, disabled people and others who offended Nazi ideas of racial superiority.
Update: January 27 2025
This story has been updated with new information.
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