International Holocaust Remembrance Day
“If you are indifferent, you will not even notice when some Auschwitz will fall from the heavens upon you and your descandants,” said Marian Turski, Holocaust Survivor, Chairman of the Council of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, during the anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27th January 2020.
79 years ago, the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Auschwitz, the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp. In the main camp of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz) barely 7,000 prisoners were liberated. More than 1.1 million people, coming from almost all German-occupied countries, did not live to see this freedom. The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is commemorated around the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established in 2005 by the United Nations.
Learn the Stories of Jews Who Survived the Holocaust
“When the train entered the ramp in Birkenau, all the doors were opened. We saw soldiers wearing uniforms and leather shoes. Big black dogs were barking. Loud music was playing, the sky was completely dark. We smelled something burning. They brought us to a room where they cut our hair, dressed us up in stripped uniforms and tattooed numbers on our forearms. At that moment, I stopped being Lusia. I became a number,” Pnina Segal says about her first moments at the death camp (watch the interview with her below).
It is hard to find the words to describe the depth of cruelty which was the Holocaust. Thus, all the more important are the words of those who survived. Every year, marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we recall stories of the Holocaust Survivors:
- See artefacts from POLIN Museum collection
- Watch interviews the oral history collection on YouTube
- Read selected stories of rescue during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland (1939–1945), presented on the Polish Righteous website:
- The Story of Elżbieta Ficowska (Koppel) and her Polish mother, Stanisława Bussold
- The Story of Joanna Sobolewska-Pyz (Grynszpan) and her Polish Parents, Walerian and Anastazja Sobolewski
- The story of rescue of Katarzyna Meloch by Jadwiga Deneko
- The story of rescue of Jakub Berkman by Leopold von Krauze, Witold Poziomski and the Pajek Family
- The Story of rescue of Rachela Varejes by the Kruminis-Łozowski Family
Visit POLIN Museum
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), we invite you to POLIN Museum in Warsaw, Poland. Take part in a unique concert of songs by Szymon Laks – an outstanding composer, writer and translator, conductor of the prisoner orchestra in the men's camp in Birkenau.
On this day, we also encourage you to visit the core exhibition “1000 Years of the History of Polish Jews” (especially the Holocaust Gallery). More information: The core exhibition of POLIN Museum
Read and watch more:
- Jews in Hiding on the “Aryan Side” [thematic section]
- Jews Helping Other Jews on the “Aryan side” [thematic section]
- The Attitudes of Poles Towards Jews During the Holocaust [article]
- Poles’ Reaction to the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto [article]
- “Protest!” by Zofia Kossak (1942) [article]
- Book entitled “This is My Homeland…” by Władysław Bartoszewski and Zofia Lewinówna [article]
- Package of educational and expert material entitled: In Hiding. Stories of Survivors and of the Righteous
