The 63rd Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau

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"The Lost Family" - Commemorating the 63rd Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.


The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at a ceremony on September 27, 2008. This year, the Museum is dedicating the observances to the tragedies of the families of many faiths and ethnic backgrounds that suffered and perished in the camp. The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and the First Lady, Maria Kaczyńska, are the honorary patrons of the event.
During the ceremony at the Sauna at the Birkenau site, former prisoners who were deported to Auschwitz from the Theresienstadt ghetto, the Zamość region, and Warsaw will recount the tragedies that befell their own families. State officials-Minister in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka and Deputy Minister of Culture Tomasz Merta-and members of the diplomatic corps.

Students from the Stanisław Konarski Secondary School in Oświęcim and members of the local Roma community will read passages from accounts by former prisoners and furnish musical accompaniment. The ceremony will conclude with a procession to the Monument at the Birkenau site for the lighting of candles and prayers by clergy of various faiths.

The theme of this year's commemoration, "The Lost Family", reflects two historical anniversaries that we are marking in 2008. Sixty-five years ago, the Germans opened two so-called "family camps" in Birkenau-first for Sinti and Roma, and the second for Jewish families deported from the ghetto in Theresienstadt. Both of these family camps were later liquidated.




more: :: Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau w O¶wiêcimiu EN ::

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

May they never be forgotten!

[joy17782]

i never really understood it , why it happen and thats not just the germans doing it but the russians too and all the way thought history but anyways theres a sad place in my heart for all

[seesul]

We were there with our American friends Joe (that guy in my siggy) and his grandson Nick in summer 2005. Especialy Nick couldn´t get over...no wonder...
Hard to believe,hard to imagine it was a reality back in 40´s...
Last week I´ve seen a document on out TV where they spoke with a Polish older man, a former member of ´Sonderkomando´. I had no words after watching it...
No one will ever be able to imagine his experience and his everydays dreams even when the WW2 was over...
Note the picture with the wall full of scratches...it was taken in gas chamber...
And there are still stupid people saying there were no concentration camps...

[seesul]

...few more pics...

[Konigstiger205]

The picture with the wall its just...like Adler said "May they never be forgotten!"

[joy17782]

the pics say a thousand words,

[evangilder]

Sad testimony to a tragic event, and a dark time in history. May they never be forgotten.

[Heinz]

Very sobering photos Seesul.

I'll echo again " May they never be forgotten "

[seesul]

Originally Posted by Heinz

Very sobering photos Seesul.

I'll echo again " May they never be forgotten "

I agree, but I´m afraid the people are forgeting too fast...
Hope I´m wrong...

[Njaco]

The pic with the gentleman in the wheelchair next to the oven has no words to describe that. My pre-wife is Jewish and one of her uncles has the tattoo. I cannot imagine that time and I cannot fathom the idiots who disbelieve (like Iran). I watched a show on PBS about a Jewish US soldier in WWII who liberated one of these camps and he didn't know what to do. You look at his face, you hear his words and you just know, deep inside, that it was true and horrible.

Thanks for the pics, Seesul.

[timshatz]

Those shots are amazing. We don't get them back here. Well, you do, but they usually have some conotations with them. Those shots were great. They were ordinary. That made them truely effective. Good to start off with the tour group shot first. Set up for great impact (thought I doubt that was the intent).

The wall is haunting.

Thanks for the shots Seesul. They were excellent. But I truely believe this is as close as I'm ever going to get to the Death Camps.

[seesul]

Originally Posted by Njaco

The pic with the gentleman in the wheelchair next to the oven has no words to describe that. My pre-wife is Jewish and one of her uncles has the tattoo. I cannot imagine that time and I cannot fathom the idiots who disbelieve (like Iran). I watched a show on PBS about a Jewish US soldier in WWII who liberated one of these camps and he didn't know what to do. You look at his face, you hear his words and you just know, deep inside, that it was true and horrible.

Thanks for the pics, Seesul.

Njaco, btw, that man on the wheelchair is that one from my siggy. After he bailed out on August 29, 1944, he spent 10 months with Germans in Stalag Luft IV. Since Feb 1944 till Apr 1945 he was on the "Dead March" and he marched 650 miles in this 3 months...
So when he visited me, he just wanted to see, what the people are able to do to the other people...and he couldn´t belive it and couldn´t get over...
I have more pics from there so if you want I can post them later.

[Marcel]

I've seen Bergen Belsen and that was more than enough.
Below the monument in Kamp Westerbork. It was the concentration camp for shipping people to Auswitz. One of the people who went into the trains there was Anne Frank. The track is original, pointing up to the sky....

[Thorlifter]

Seesul, what was the older gentleman's reaction as you went through the camp? Silence? If he was talking, what was he saying?

Your pictures are amazing. I'm very moved by the one outside the gate with the sign Arbeit Macht Frei (Work will make you free) I think the literal translation is Work Makes Free. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. The look on his face is, I can't even think of proper words.