Poland in the Council of Europe

The theme of the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz is the fate of Children.

The online commemoration ceremony and debate on „The influence of war and the Holocaust on the formation of a child's identity” will be held in the virtual space, on 27 January 2021, starting at 16.00 CET (UTC+1) and will be available at www.auschwitz.org and 76.auschwitz.org, as well as on the Memorial Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.

Museum’s website information:

'Over 200,000 children were murdered in Auschwitz. Completely innocent, good, curious about life, loving their closest ones, trusting children. The adult world - after all, so often unjust and cruel - has never demonstrated so much of its heartlessness, its evil. This cannot be justified by any ideology, reckoning or politics. This year we want to dedicate the anniversary of liberation to the youngest victims of the camp,' said Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, the director of the Museum.

It is estimated, basing on the approximate data, that at least 232,000 children and young people were deported to Auschwitz, of whom 216,000 were Jews, 11,000 Roma, about 3,000 Poles, more than 1,000 Belarusians, and several hundred Russians, Ukrainians, and others. A total of about 23,000 children and young people were registered in the camp. Slightly more than 700 were liberated from Auschwitz in January 1945.

 

 

Polish Sejm declared 2021 as the year of the Ładoś Group, Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Bern, who helped save Jews from the Holocaust, during WW2.

The Permanent Representation of Poland to the Council of Europe would like to invite you to online viewing of the Institute of National Remembrance recent documentary ”Passports to Paraguay”, directed by Mr. Robert Kaczmarek, on the participation of Polish diplomats in rescuing Jews during World War II. This story is one of many efforts by Polish diplomats worldwide to save lives and alarm the world of the Holocaust in Europe. It is one of many memorable examples of foreign diplomats in different parts of the world who undertook efforst to rescue Jews, as whoever saves one life, saves the world entire…

The documentary goes back to the years 1942—1943, when an informal group of Polish diplomats and activists of Jewish organizations worked together to obtain passports of South American countries for Jewish people imprisoned in ghettos by the Nazi German occupants of Poland and other European countries. The secret group working at the Polish legation in Bern included: Aleksander Ładoś, Konstanty Rokicki, Stefan Jan Ryniewicz, Juliusz Kühl and on the part of Jewish organizations—Adolf H. Silberschein and Chaim Eiss.

Thanks to the passports, many Jews avoided deportation to German death camps. The holders of such passports were sent to internment camps in Germany (Tittmoning, Liebenau, Bölsenberg) and to occupied France (Vittel) instead. Unfortunately, not many of the people thus saved managed to survive the war, and often the families only now find out the stories behind the rescue.

”Passports to Paraguay”: