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| You are here: 2000 / Workshops, Panels and Seminars / Panel 2: Remembering the Holocaust - The challenges of Memory / Presentation by Dr. Franciszek Piper | |||||||||
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Report from Panel 2 on Remembering the Holocaust - the Challenges of Memory Presentation by Mr. Serge Klarsfeld Presentation by Dr. Anita Shapira Presentation by Dr. Franciszek Piper Presentation by Dr. Franciszek Piper Piper, Franciszek Presentation by Dr. Franciszek Piper Memory and Knowledge about the Holocaust and Auschwitz in Poland. The Role of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the commemoration of Holocaust of Jews and genocide of Poles, Gypsies and others.
1. Memory and Knowledge about the Holocaust and Auschwitz around the World There are without doubt three reasons which cause Auschwitz became a symbol of the Holocaust 1. The first reason there is a number of the victims. In spite of the fact that only 20 % of all Jews killed during the Second World War, lost their life in Auschwitz, this camp was the largest site of the extermination of the Jews. Approximately 1,000,000 men, women and children of about total 5-6 million were killed there because of their Jewish nationality. (The second large death camp was Treblinka with 800 000 murdered and the third - Be³¿ec with 600 000 killed). 2. The second reason which caused that Auschwitz became a symbol of the Holocaust is the great number of prisoners who survived the camp and lived to tell others about it. Although at the Treblinka camp, as mentioned above, also an enormous number of people died, only about 70 eyewitnesses survived, while probably 30 000 only Jewish eyewitnesses survived Auschwitz. At the end of the war, these survivors returned to their countries of origin or emigrated all over the world. There, they submitted testimony and accounts, wrote memoirs, gave interviews, carried out academic research, wrote books, created works of art, gave lectures, inspired conferences and research by others, and took part in various forms of commemoration such as monuments or memorial plaques. In the countries, where these Jewish survivors settled, Auschwitz was, and continues to be perceived through their experience and knowledge . 3. The third reason which causes Auschwitz became so known and is beeing visited by more then half million people yearly, are material remains of the camp: living barracks, fences, watch towers, ruins of gas chambers and crematoria, personal belongings of the murdered, documents and photographs from time the camp existed. While in Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec are no visible traces of what there was done. These three factors caused Auschwitz plays so important role as an example of the Holocaust. 2. Memory and Knowledge about the Holocaust and Auschwitz in Poland In Poland, Auschwitz is not only the symbol of the Holocaust, but also a symbol of the Nazis atrocities directed against the Polish nation, which lost 2 million souls during the war. In this country Auschwitz was and continues to be perceived primarily through the memory of Polish survivors. Although Poles made up a decided minority of the victims, about 70 thousand Poles were killed there, their fate for many years came to the foreground, and has - ironically - somewhat obscured the Holocaust. While the younger generation of Poles derives its knowledge of Auschwitz directly from those Polish participants in the events, the knowledge about the fate of the Jewish victims is almost exclusively drawn from literature, films, relations of the witnesses, and other indirect sources. The Jewish survivors, either never returned to Poland after the war, or emigrated from Poland for various reasons. For the most part, Poles who witnessed the process of persecution of Jewish people observed only the preliminary stages of the Holocaust: the deportation to the ghettos and transit camps, where Jews were separated of the Polish population, as well as the transports that crossed Poland on the way to the extermination sites. There were no direct Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who could share their knowledge, thoughts, and feelings with those around them. Also a literature both scientific as well as the memoires did not supply the whole knowledge about the scale Holocaust was realized in Auschwitz. For many years, because of the destruction of most of the documentation by the camp authorities, and the removal of some of the documentation by the Russian authorities, there was no scientifically documented data on either the overall number of victims or their breakdown by nationality. The available information was not the result of scientific research, but rather took the form of estimates made by the courts on the basis of eyewitness accounts of the capacity of the extermination apparatus and the time that it was in operation. Only in the 1980s did research by G. Wellers in France and F. Piper in Poland , using the research on biological losses in different countries, determine the breakdown of the victims by nationality and establish in Poland beyond question that the decided majority of the victims were Jewish. The mechanism of the inter-generational transfer of knowledge about the times of the German occupation in Poland, along with other political decisions, contributed to the formation among the Polish population of a ²²Polish-centered²² way of looking at the genocidal acts of the German occupier, including the functioning of the Auschwitz camp. In the subjective feelings of some Poles, especially of those who themselves suffered due to the Nazi persecution and lost their nearest and dearest during the war, for those who passed for instance, through the agony of Warsaw uprising, the persecution of the Poles and the persecution of the Jews were and still are regarded almost as equivalent. Only a reflection on history, facts supported by the scientific literature, can permit Poles–who bear in their minds the image of what their nation went through under the German occupation–to become aware of the specific fate of the Jews and the unique nature of their persecution, which ended with the collective murder of their people. Despite the painful losses of Poles, the executions, the mass deportation of Poles to death in the concentration camps, there was no case - what was the regular procedure in the case of Jews - in which the entire Polish population of a village, town, or city was taken out to be executed, shot, or killed with poison gas. Although many Poles died only because they were Poles [ during the Warsaw Uprising, the occupation forces asked before executions whether there were any Germans or people of German descent in the crowds–and those who came forward were set free], there was never a total sentence passed against all Poles; never was it the case, as it was with Jews outside the ghettos and camps, that every Pole found on the street was killed or arrested, even though many completely innocent Poles were arrested on the street and sent to die in the concentration camps, or shot. Elie Wiesel's famous dictum, ²²Not every victim was a Jew, but every Jew was a victim,²² is fully confirmed by the historical realities. During various discussions that took place in the 1990s, including those concerned with the location of the Carmelite convent or the crosses adjacent to the site of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, historians in Poland informed a part of the public about many aspects of the suffering of the Jews, emphasizing the uniqueness of the Holocaust and the differences between the Holocaust and other forms of genocide. An important role was also played by the changes introduced into the exhibitions and publications of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, in which insufficient emphasis had previously been placed on the role of Auschwitz in the Nazi plan for the complete extermination of the Jews. 3.Various Forms of Commemoration of Auschwitz in Poland. The Role of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the commemoration of Holocaust of Jews and genocide of Poles, Gypsies and others . In spi of all these difficulties and distortions in Poland, Auschwitz is an integral element of both the individual and the collective consciousness. The symptoms of individual memory include: The gravestones erected in cemeteries by the families of prisoners who were killed. Such memorials can be found, for instance, at the Rakowicki cemetery in Cracow. Other signs of individual memory are the candles brought to the Museum and placed at various locations by prisoners' families on the All Saints Day, or on the day of the execution or death of their relatives. Many people who lost their nearest and dearset in Auschwitz visit the Museum looking for the documents, photographs, many have preserved till today the letters received from the prisoners. Collective memory about Auschwitz takes both spontaneous and institutionalized forms. The foremost example of institutionalized collective memory is the creation by the Polish parliament of the museum in in Auschwitz, entrusted with protecting all material remains of the former camp and disseminating knowledge about it. Other instances of institutionalized collective memory are the annual ceremonies organized by public institutions to commemorate the liberation of the camp on January 27 and the arrival of the first transport of political prisoners–on June 14. The organizers are the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and the Auschwitz Preservation Society, the local and central organizations and institustions. These celebrations are covered by the Polish press, radio, and television. Gypsies commemorate their 20 000 murdered on the 2 August the day of liquidation of the Gipsy camp in Auschwitz. Memorial tablets and monuments on the grounds of the branch camps of the former Auschwitz Concentration Camp, erected by the local authorities in the localities where those sub-camps were located, are another form of institutionalized collective memory. Spontaneous collective memory is exemplified by the numerous gravestones and monuments erected by the local Polish population at the mass graves of the victims of the Death March–the prisoners who were killed during the evacuation of the camp. The fact that Auschwitz is visited by more than 500 000 people yearly (549,992 in 1998), half of them Polish, also reflects the memory of and knowledge about Auschwitz in Poland. The memory of visits to Auschwitz is embodied in the poems, articles, pictures, sculpture, and musical compositions created by people who thus express the thoughts and feelings stemming from the time they spent at the site of the former camp. Many feature and documentary films have been made about Auschwitz. Approximately 50 film crews of various sorts visit the Museum each year, and there are some 200 films in the Museum collections. Other signs of individual memory about Auschwitz include the thousands of letters received each year with requests for information about the fate of relatives (in 1998, 3,577 such inquiries were received through correspondence and 6,937 made in person). The Auschwitz Museum receives also many inquiries addressed to the Archives and the Historical Research Department by researchers and persons interested in various issues in the history of the camp (750 such inquiries in 1998). Each year, Polish students undertake master's theses on various subjects connected with the history of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Doctoral dissertations are also written, such as that taken up by the German priest residing in Poland, Father Manfred Desaelers, on the morality of camp commandant Rudolf Hoess ( Und Sie hatten nie Gewissenbisse? Die Biografie von Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant von Auschwittz, und die Frage seiner Verantwortung vor Gott und den Menschen, Leipzig 1997). The library, with its 23,366 titles in more than a dozen languages, was visited in 1998 by 2,688 persons interested in the history of Auschwitz. Living memory of the Holocaust and Auschwitz is dwindling. Fewer and fewer of its bearers, the survivors and eyewitnesses of events, are with us year by year. In proportion to this loss, knowledge about this human tragedy should be propagated, so that it becomes a living element in the consciousness of future generations, and so that the lessons of this historical experience can prompt people to adopt moral values that will serve as a barrier to renewed attempts at the practice of Holocaust and genocide. This knowledge, based on the results of research, should create the historical background, the common denominator, for these different memories offered by the surviviors and eyewitnesses. Creation of this historical background is important task for all researchers. But not only for them. The Holocaust was a specific form of violating the basic human rights to dignity, freedom and life. Everyone responsible for public life–politicians, clergy, educators, researchers, cultural figures, and those involved in the mass media–should join in propagating this knowledge about the social, psychological and political mechanisms that led to the Holocaust. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, has a great role to play in the efforts to reconstract the history of Auschwitz camp, disseminate information about the Holocaust and genocide, and in the commemoration of the victims. This idea has often been expressed by leading figures from the worlds of politics, science, art, and culture who have visited Auschwitz during last 50 years. After visiting the Museum in 1967, the President of France Charles de Gaulle wrote in the guest book: ²²In Auschwitz. What a sadness, what a disagreeableness, and in spite of all, what a hope for humanity”- „A Auschwitz. quelle tristesse, quelle dégoût, et malgré tout quelles espérance humaine”. . One might add that it is the hope that this place will serve as a warning against the renewed genocide. In order to fulfill this purpose and the message the Museum presents the permanent and temporarely exhibitions also abroad, organizes the postgraduate studies for teachers, does the historical resarch and publishs their effects, as well as many prisoners memoires. Last year - thirty-two years after President de Gaulle's visit, Professor Susan Benedict of the Medical University of South Carolina wrote, in a letter to the Museum following her visit, ²²I don’t think a person can visit Auschwitz and remain unchanged.²² These words give the best possible definition of the sense of the existence of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, which has not only a particular role to play in the commemoration of the Holocaust, but also to make everyone sensitive to, and active, in the face of all symptoms of the discrimination, degradation, or persecution of others because of their ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, or convictions. History of Auschwitz and Holocaust teaches that these symptoms lead inevitably to the sufferings and the death of innocent people. >> Back to top |
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