Introduction: I wrote this post on 2017, and again on 2019, and I am writing again today. Why? Because we need to remember, and we need to remember also from the memories of the ones that are no longer with us. 75 years later, there are not so much survived, to keep the memory alive. They gave the responsibility of the memory to us, and we should be proud of that.
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners. On November 1, 2005 the United Nations designated January 27 as the âInternational Holocaust Remembrance Dayâ. A day for remembering one of the most horrible pages of our history.
It is so important to remember this. It will not guarantee that it will not happen again, but it will show us what could happen, if we do not clearly state our position.
I have been in Cracow this weekend and on the way back I did meet tourists, who did visit the Auschwitz. As well such a kind of âtourismâ is very important.
In order to make sure this is never forgotten, I think it is also important to make sure that the commemorative signs/monuments are on Maps (e.g. with the category âheritage preservationâ). A good example are the âStolpersteineâ - commemorative signs embedded in the pavement in front of the house where a person used to live that was deported
Thank you for sharing this, @ErmesT . Remembering is one of the best things we can do in these situations.
I was able to visit the Anne Frank museum, as well as the Buenos Aires version; three Holocaust museums; many statues and art remembering the victims; and the Dachau concentration camp memorial. Itâs sad to go back and remember, but necessary. I learned a lot about the Holocaust in highschool and I have to say visiting Dachau was something I had to do and Iâm grateful I got to do, itâs different to be there where it happened especially remembering everything I was told. I wish to visit Auschwitz in the future and keep remembering.
thank you for remembering and keeping remember this day, it is never too much to keep doing it as thatâs, unfortunately, part of our history, a very bad part. And only remembering continuously it we can make sure, or at least try to, that the next generations are not repeating such kind of horrors against each other.
The more we go ahead with our life and the more seems that those events are part of the past and the more they feel too far that people donât put the deserved importance to it ⌠this is something very scary, and horrible too, which can be seen quite often today.
I saw a few days ago on television an interview of an Italian 19 YO guy. He was speaking about race supremacy, with a Nazi flag behind him.
They asked why he was doing this, and he responded âbecause it is funnyâ.
Every day we hear people speaking about âA strong man in powerâ.
They donât have memories, they think the Holocaust is a movie, the think the racial wars around the world are movies, and migrants, people escaping from wars, they have to go back home.
They are like Dory, and this is scaring me, because, as I wrote in the post, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it - George Santayana**â.**
So I am writing this post every year, and I hope that many will go to visit a place of the memory.
Hope a beautiful sunset may help the people to think about that
I still have the good fortune to have my grandfather Bruno still alive, and his testimony, told in his words still trembling with pain, makes it even more atrocious, more hallucinating to make you understand how much human hatred can come.
(and just tonight 27/01/2020 , on the Italian television channel Rai Due at 20:30 was postponed tomorrow, same channel, 1pm local there will be an interview of him for a special about International Holocaust Remembrance Day).
My biggest fear is that all this will be forgotten, that in twenty years, all this will be left to vanish: therefore it is our duty to do our best to keep all this alive and fight against those who deny that these barbarisms have ever happened.
Denkmal fĂźr die ermordeten Juden Europas - 2,711 columns form a large labyrinth in remembrance of the Holocaust, with an underground exhibition hall - Berlin - photo by davidhyno
I didnât knew Bruno is your grandfather. Only a few of them still alive, after 75 years, but I remember the stories that mom told me. Not about the extermination camps, but indeed about the wars, the SS in their house, and how it was to be a child, with people escaped, hidden in a hole along the river under the roots of a large tree. The children (she was 6 years old) brought food to the hidden people.
She was fortunate, as she growth in a farm, and they (five kids) had an egg every day. One egg to share in five, of course, but much better than other people.
Keep the memory of the atrocity is our duty, so thank you for posting.
Oh @davidhyno , very deep private inside you share with us.
I donât receive RAI and I do not speak Italian (as you know), but I have had as well the possibility to speak to people who do survive, but as Iâm German and grown up here, I do very well know that I have met (being aware or not) far more people where part of the other sideâŚ
You are very familiar with Krakow, @TorM , so I really believe that you had the opportunity to touch both parts of the story, my friend.
And, if I can add a note, German soldiers died in the ware like everyone else, controlled by the craziness of some Nazi fool. What we have to learn is not to give space to the dictators, we have a brain and we have to use it.
Soldiers are victims, all the time, like the other people.
Auschwitz is a symbol, but we can mention a lot of example, in every country, about the brutality of the âracial warsâ.
A few Km to where I live we have two Cemeteries, both from WW1, one on each side of the rivers. One is a British Cemetery, the other one is Austro Hungarian. There are only photos taken by me, in the last one. Why?
Thanks @ErmesT for your post!
I know about this War from my grandparents. The territory on which we live was under fascist occupation. My grandfather was a soldier of the Soviet Army. He was injured and lived with a bullet fragment in stomach.
He told us a lot about the War. We saw his scars and injuriesâŚ
We must talk about this to remember⌠To prevent thisâŚ
Yes indeed @davidhyno , the fear that everything will be forgotten ⌠what a terrible fear at the only though that something similar might happen again.
Oh Bruno is your grandfather, this is something very special for you, thank you for sharing it with us.
Only my father and grandfather missed out on Auschwitz. The rest of my family tree ended there.
The family while pt dominantly Yugoslav lived in Trieste and they escaped via Italy. It is a story I donât know much about. My father never spoke of it. My grandfather wasnât ready to talk until a time when I want ready to listen so the knowledge is lost except for some papers I have from the journey and my fatherâs high school and university papers. I know where dad went after he came to Australia and have traced much of my grandfatherâs journey in America and been fortunate enough through Local Guides to be able to visit some of those places.
Thanks for sharing @ErmesT .The holocaust was a dark chapter in human history that we should never forget. I was not around during the genocide neither was I born in Europe. Leaving in Russia , I had a glimpse of ww2 in memorial of the soldiers of the Soviet army. I started having a thought about when saw huge memorial park with thousands of name inscribed on a plaque in many cities. That was when I asked myself a question. Could the war so horrendous?
Even today the lesson has not been completely learnt. You will not believe it till you see or visit a war memorial⌠I heard stories of gory atrocities from the survivors while working in UN camp.
All of us, I believe, we have memories coming from our grandparents. Fortunately some of them still alive, like @davidhyno 's grandfather. This help to reinforce the memories, to keep them alive
To answer your question - I donât remember. But I know. I know a lot, as a direct descendant of Đ° person of those times.
My grandfather was missing from home for more than seven years. During that time he spent a few years in a camp in Spain and then a few in Dachau, Germany. Fortunately, he got home alive. He managed to recover, physically. My father says that he never talked much about those days. But he left us some notes and stories narrated (which my father managed to publish in a book about our family). And we will remember.
I donât have photos, I havenât visited any of these places. Maybe, someday I will.
I was listening the national radio yesterday evening, while driving home. They were talking about the Remembrance Day, and a lot of people was calling, telling the same story. I remember very well a lady from my city. When she was a kid, she was asking the grandfather to tell her something about the deportation camps. After a few days, she was asked from her mother to not ask anymore about the holocaust, because due to the disturbance caused, the grandfather was no longer able to sleep.
I have been in Auschwitz twice, but the first time I wasnât able to take photos. Simply I wasnât able to raise the camera, my feeling was to profanate the place.
During the European Meet-up on 2018, i deeply wanted to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau again, for documenting and writing. It wasnât easy in any case. But I deeply suggest a visit, I deeply suggest to spend a few hours of silence in an extermination camp. Listening the silence, watching the sunset, we will learn a lot. Beautiful sunsets can be seen, through the barbed wire.
