Several dozens of former prisoners of German camps laid a wreath and lit candles at the Death Wall in the former Auschwitz I. This was the first chord of the commemoration of the 74th anniversary of the occupation of the camp by the Soviet army, which took place on January 27.

Former prisoners entered the former camp through the main gate with the inscription „Arbeit macht frei”. Most of them crossed the camp alleys on foot. Many of them wore scarves in white and blue stripes, reminiscent of camp striped uniforms.

The Polish national anthem was played. In front of the Death Wall in the courtyard of Block 11, former prisoners, accompanied, among others, by Auschwitz Museum Director Piotr Cywiński, laid a wreath of white and blue flowers arranged in strips. In its center there was a red triangle with the letter „P”. It symbolizes Polish political prisoners who were imprisoned by the Germans in their camps.

The ceremony was attended by Barbara Doniecka, who had been 10 years old when she had been deported from insurgent Warsaw to Auschwitz in August 1944.

We come here as if to the cemetery, the largest cemetery. We remember those who died. Next to me, a girl died on a berth. She was perhaps six years old. Whenever I am here, I go to Birkenau and block 13. I always put a statue of an angel for her on the berth where she died. Today I also have it. (…) The girl who died was despairing for her mother. I and my older friends were taking care of her, but she did not want to eat or drink. I come here just for her

— said Barbara Doniecka.

Barbara Wojnarowska, also brought from Warsaw in August 1944, paid homage to the victims of Auschwitz at the Death Wall.

I was four years old then. I still live and come here every year. It was not a sanatorium. We, the children, lost our childhood, the older – their youth. It is important that we are still here and we can pass it on to the next generations. But for how long? How many more prisoners are still alive? How many will be here next year?

— said Wojnarowska, who was brought to the camp with her loved ones. Everyone survived.

The ceremony was attended by Andrzej Zasępa from Sosnowiec.

I was a three year old prisoner. I was taken with my parents. They were taken to Auschwitz, I was taken to Polenlager (a system of 26 German concentration and forced labor camps for Poles in Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin - PAP). This is an incredible trauma. A German man pulled me out of my parents’ arms. Then it got even worse. The most important thing, however, is that our whole family survived. Father, mother and I

— he said.

The Death Wall, also known as the Black Wall or Execution Wall, stood in the courtyard of Block 11. Starting in autumn of 1941, SS men carried out executions by firing squad for two years. In this way they killed many thousands of people, mainly Poles. The wall was dismantled by the Germans in February 1944. Now there is a replica of it. It is a traditional place where all official visits pay homage to the murdered.

For me, the worst thing about Auschwitz was not hunger, not the fact that we were forced into slave labour, but the fact that we were deprived of humanity.

— said Stanisław Zalewski, former Pawiak prisoner, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp.

He talked about several pictures from Auschwitz, which he remembered.

One day a train with wagons - the so-called Pullman cars, their super wagons, now Intercity - arrived and well-dressed Jews got off. (….) They were told, as I later learned from literature, that they were going to work in the East. But we, the prisoners, standing in front of the barrack - because it was forbidden to leave then - knew what would happen to them. Imagine such a clash - people walking calmly and us, who knew what their future would be like, when they get there, to this place.

— recalled Zalewski.

The second picture he remembered was transporting to the crematorium.

Next to our barrack there was a barrack where prisoners unable to work were placed. Of course, these prisoners were later delivered to the gas chambers and burned in the crematorium. Once, the collection of the barrack, where there were women, was done. It was November. Women were ordered to undress naked, lorries were approaching and these women were loaded like a cargo, goods, then they were locked and cars were going in the known direction, straight to the crematorium. I still hear the cry of these women today

— he spoke with emotion.

When asked about the thing which was the worst in Auschwitz, he answered: For me, the worst of all was not hunger, not the fact that we were forced into slave labor, but the fact that we were deprived of humanity.

We were not humans, we were treated as something unnecessary, obsolete, which had to be used to the maximum, and then exterminated. Just like some alien creatures. And that was the worst.

— he emphasized.

The Germans established the Auschwitz camp in 1940 in order to imprison Poles there. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was established two years later. It became a place of extermination of Jews. There was also a network of sub-camps in the camp complex. In Auschwitz, the Germans killed at least 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), and people of other nationalities.

January 27, 1945 is celebrated worldwide as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Tłum. K.J.