Holocaust ‘could happen again’ warn survivors as they return to Nazi death camps for March of Living

Holocaust ‘could happen again’ warn survivors as they return to Nazi death camps for March of Living

the first thing that hit you was Smog and the smell and there were people there but there were skeletons and there were shuffling along aimlessly and as they were shuffling along they just collapse and die there were dead bodies all over the place piles of of corpses um it was a horrific scene behind me is Rubble the Nazis raised this site to the ground in 1943 they were trying to hide evidence of what really lay here gas Chambers workers houses this is a site where 500,000 Jews met their deaths after they were gas in gas Chambers they were taken to the trees behind me where their bodies were burned in the local Village People heard rumors of the extermination as guards went in for a drink and boasted about what they had done my name is Mara tribit I was born in Poland um and I was only 8 years old well approaching N9 when war broke out in 1939 and um life changed completely ours was the first town to ever getto and we were very overcrowded people are dying because of the overcrowding and the the epidemics that that caused and subsequently I was um working in a labor camp I started at the age of 12 and um that was followed by concentration camps when were deported first to renbrook and then to Bergen bellson Bergen bellson was the most shocking place on Earth and when they took us through um to the main Camp which as I mentioned was very overcrowded people were arriving from the camps in Poland into the camps in in Germany I had my little cousin with me whose mother was taken away in the ghetto she was deported and I was only relatives who looked after her so at the age of 12 I had the responsibility of um looking after my little cousin and and that was a terrible a terrible responsibility to carry at a time like that and well ultimately my um the war came to an end but not before I contracted tyos which loads of other people were dying of typhus and other diseases and then miraculously luckily we were liberated by the British Army and they were absolutely wonderful I I mean I take me a long time to describe how wonderful they were the only other member of my family to survive was my brother so my name is Salomon ja Wiis I was born in 1942 in ANP and this was obviously period of the of the war and um my father had already been taken away to work on the Atlantic Wall for the Tod organization my mother looked after me on her return from uh from Leo in France and um one day she decided she needed to go shopping and was picked up uh in the streets of antb taken to Marin in which was a a Belgian Army Barrack from where she was taken and murdered immediately on arrival in September of 1942 at a ber the horror is the the memory and the lack of not in in many in many respects because 6 Seven 8 n months old you have no memories and so yeah difficult but it’s amazing that so many survived in reality there’s the the highlighting of numbers numbers are in a in a way meaningless as statistics is the humanistic element and the fact that uh in many respects I owe my life to the goodness of people who hid me who helped those who were in The Underground and the lady who had towards the end hid me for the final part of that particular year in 4445 um was not Jewish she put her life on the on the line as they all did anybody who hid children adults or whatever were allowable to be taken away and shot or since two concentration camps in one way so either Poland or Germany I’m at B extermination camp in Poland 500,000 Jews lost their lives here just two survived the Nazis were in such a hurry to continue the killing machine that the average life expectancy here is just 90 minutes Jewish people would leave the train about 300 yards from where I’m standing and take a walk down this tunnel in the belief that were being resettled in reality they were walking to their deaths I thought i’ seemed the worst of the worst when I visited trinka and subsequently ashis B belek was totally and utterly mindblowing in so far as the thought of people arriving and within 90 minutes and 9 and a half murdered and slaughtered in the most past still way and one hopes that but by telling a story that has been devastating to a lot of people that maybe maybe just maybe in the future hate will be reduced and maybe the light at the end of the tunnel we all talk about and the love of one man for his human Humanity will prevail but that’s my hope I’m not sure that it will succeed I have to admit my name is Barbara frankis um I was born in wara Poland and 1939 German Army invaded Poland I was smuggled out with my mother out of the ghetto in 1942 or beginning of 43 I was too little to remember my mother was hidden in a basement of the building building with other Jews I was in the same building in someone’s flat a guy who had a wife and a daughter of the same age as me who my mother paid monthly a sum of money to keep me hidden I was not allowed to walk I had to stand behind the Wardrobe and entire day I allow to sit down and have my meal the the Wardrobe was at the right angles to the window and was pushed away not quite in the corner leave enough room for me to stand behind it and the reason I was apparently standing behind the Wardrobe all day was I wouldn’t make any noise because the neighbors would have discovered that there were two children rather than one and would have immediately suspect it was Jewish child was actually being hidden there and and kept there for money unfortunately I was spending my days literally standing all day my only entertainment invented commer was licking my finger and drawing various shapes and I only at night I was obviously allowed to sleep on straw mattress without any bedding and without any night clothes I was as far as I know I never washed or anything one day we heard shots no we didn’t hear shot we heard a lot of commotion um discovered that someone has betrayed the 18 people who are in the basement of the building 18 Jews which were hidden and told the German Nazis that they are Jews there so they got them out and the punishment was shooting them straight away among them was my mother but the the Habit was all the everyone in the building had to come and watch the execution fortunately because I was a little girl and I stood behind the grown naps which were taller than me so I heard the shots but I didn’t know I didn’t see anything had I seen it I would have screamed and they would have known I was connected to one of the people who are hidden and as well as me and my host family would have been shot as well after my mother was murdered I didn’t have anywhere to go I was homeless and uh I was as I was left in the forest I was found for some children sledging they took me to police station and there one of the policemen adopted me I’m here at AIT concentration camp where 1.1 million people lost their lives in the World War II I’m here with delegates from the march of the living people who have come to pay tribute to mourn to remember those who died it is very emotional for me no matter how many times I come but the fact that I’m I’m with friends it it’s sort of supportive it makes it a little bit easier but one one never comes to terms with it I feel very upset cut up I’m afraid and although I have not been in a concentration camp s spent my child in also geta I feel all my family perished was murdered in concentration comes particularly I think TR blinka very emotional and it’s a very much present situation remind me what happened and I’m really frightened for the future of the world jewy people only see one side rather than have a Balan SP and destruction of Israel called by so many people in different countries particularly in the Middle East it worries me and I hope I in my life I will not go through the fear of genocide again I’m humbled and uh and I’m deeply moved and I I have to remember that I was a child child and I wouldn’t have survived without my wonderful sister and my parents whom I should be eternally grateful when I heard about the attack it made me immediately remember how my grandmother was pushed into a wooden synagogue uh with her daughter who was pregnant and they were burnt alive because the horror just woke up reawaken the horror and I no longer felt safe I don’t want to be here uh I hate this place I’ve been here many times because it’s important to come with Mar of living and educate people but when I come here today more than on some other times I’m thinking of my beloved maternal grandfather to whom I was very close when my family when the Nazis evicted my family from her home after Christan he took us in we were just very close and he was a beautiful wonderful loving man man and I’ve done enough research to know that he stepped off the cattle wagon when he arrived at aitz and he didn’t live to see another day and so I don’t forget that I know that there were six so many who perish but I feel I feel it very personally today and so very sad it’s terrifying because I understand how naive people uh with a simplistic concept of the world voted Nazi they weren’t actually instigators of the mass killing but without them the Nazis couldn’t have done it and currently we have people in Britain who think they are supporting the poor Palestinians I’m not in favor of Palestinian Garin being harmed but you need to consider both sides and people with a false sense of justice because they only consider one side they systematically ignore the outrageous horror committed by people with a plan to exterminate the Jews of Israel it’s a terrifying reminder of where the collapse of balance thought leads I’m totally overwhelmed my mind goes to the days when they were happier times and sadly my mother together with other members of her family perished here on her arrival in 1942 my father survived luckily I have a duty to commemorate and to remember and that’s why I’m here with the march of the living and supported by friends my own family and aend tremendous group of people it is awesome to be here it’s a sunny day the birds are singing and we can only remember the good things and not hate we need to love each other to the maximum we have a duty to ensure that the memory of olders who perished here goes forward through education

STANDING in front of the gates of hell at the entrance to Auschwitz concentration camp, seven Holocaust survivors are among the last to bear witness to the inhuman brutality of the Nazis.

It may be eight decades since they rebuilt their lives in Britain, but their legacy is to re-tell the nightmares that haunt them as anti-Semitism once again rises across Europe.

Read more:
Humanity has not learned its lesson from the Holocaust, say 7 survivors as they visit Auschwitz death camp
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27762642/holocaust-survivors-visit-auschwitz/

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