Auschwitz-Birkenau is just one of the many extermination camps created during World War II by the German Third Reich but, at the same time, the world’s most recognisable symbol and place of genocide and martyrdom. Today, we pay tribute to the more than one million of its victims: Jews, Poles, Roma, Sinti, and others from all of occupied Europe, as well as to the Survivors, their number shrinking every year, who managed to stay alive to see that special day.

Since 2005, 27 January marks the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. It cannot but give rise to a reflection on today’s challenges, which clearly show that the world, decades after the crime that plunged European civilisation into darkness and so badly scarred the 20th century, still needs to be fixed and needs our constant commitment to defending such values as peace, truth, and freedom from hatred. It is a sad paradox that a state that casts itself as a “liberator” of Auschwitz-Birkenau should resort to acts of brutality and crimes, unseen in Europe since the memorable year of 1945, in the war it has provoked in Ukraine, and that calls for physical extermination of the neighbouring nation should continue to resonate with people, poisoning their minds and hearts.

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Spokesperson