what was the worst Nazi extermination camp, to remember its liberation 60 years ago, and to pay tribute to over one million people who were murdered here. In freezing temperatures politicians and those who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau recalled the Nazi’s chilling "Final Solution" on the same spot where new arrivals were brought in by rail and put through "selection."
Those few deemed able to work were separated from the rest who were taken immediately to
the gas chambers.
The ceremony began and ended with the recorded rumble of an approaching train. Fire and
large clouds of smoke set the scene of a place where six decades ago gas chambers and chimney’s of crematoria worked day and night.
"WALKING ON ASHES"
"It seems if you listen hard enough, you can still hear the outcry of horror of the murdered people," Israeli President Moshe Katsav said. "When I walk the ground of the concentration camps, I fear that I am walking on the ashes of the victims."
Auschwitz and the neighboring camp at Birkenau, or Brzezinka in Polish, was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. An estimated 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, died here from gassing, starvation, exhaustion, beatings and disease, although some historians say the actual death toll may be two million.
Other victims included Gypsies or Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, homosexuals and political opponents of the Nazis. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he was proud that Soviet forces had done "more than any [other country]" to defeat Nazism, but admitted that anti-Semitism remained a problem in his country.
"We sometimes unfortunately see manifestations of this problem and I, too, am ashamed of that," Putin added. Earlier in Krakow, United States Vice President Dick Cheney said the Holocaust did happen in "the heart of the civilized world." He reportedly stressed the tragedy "shows that evil is real and must be called by its name and must be confronted."
GERMAN PRESIDENT SILENT
German President Horst Kohler did not to speak at the ceremony because of his country’s role in the killings of an estimated six million Jews in the Holocaust, as well as many others the Nazis did not like.
Some were expected to regret Kohler’s decision not to speak in the former concentration camp. Before the ceremony began Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told BosNewsLife: "It is very important that such a president will come to speak and to apologize and to speak against anti Semitism."
However in an interview published before his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenauy, the German president made clear that "Auschwitz represented the worst crime in the history" of mankind. "[It is] a responsibility on the shoulders of Germany permanently…" he was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Auschwitz survivor Arno Lustiger praised Germany for a Holocaust memorial in central Berlin, which is due to open in May. In a speech to the German parliament on Thursday, January 27, Lustiger said it was these memorials that provided hope the victims of the Nazis would not be forgotten, the Reuters news agency reported.
MEMORY "HAS FUTURE"
"Does the memory of Nazi crimes have a future in Germany?" he reportedly asked. "I say yes and here is the proof. There are some 180 commemorative monuments in former concentration camps, prisons, synagogues … This builds a real, imposing network of remembrance."
In Auschwitz-Birkenau leaders and elderly survivors carefully placed candles, in blue glass holders, at a memorial as they left. Reporters saw how new Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko made the sign of the cross after gently setting his down. Girl Scouts brought blankets to elderly survivors sitting in the freezing cold.
"For a former inmate of Auschwitz, it is an unimaginable and overwhelming emotion to be able to speak in this cemetery without graves, the largest one in the history of Europe," said Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a survivor who later became Poland’s foreign minister.
When he arrived in 1940, he recalled, "I never imagined I would outlive Hitler or survive World War II." There were also calls to carry the message of "never again" to future generations. But Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski admitted he was not optimistic.
"When I see ethnic purges in the Balkans or what is happening in some African countries, I have to note that, unfortunately, the message of Auschwitz has not been heeded," Kwasniewski told Polish radio. "We must constantly remind each other of the message, not only when there are ceremonies like the one today," he reportedly said.
