Poland in the UK

A day for reflection

SIR – On Holocaust Memorial Day, we mourn the victims of one of the worst atrocities in human history.

We try to comprehend the unimaginable pain they suffered because of a cruel ideology and heinous crimes. We remember so that it never happens again.

On this sorrowful day, we also remember those who, risking their own and their families’ lives, aided their Jewish brothers and sisters, helping to save thousands from death.

One of them was Witold Pilecki, a Polish officer who died 75 years ago this year. He volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz, organising resistance and escapes, and was the first to inform the West about the real nature of the largest German concentration and extermination camp.

Another was a former Polish ambassador to Switzerland, Aleksander Ładoś, who died 60 years ago. He led the Bernese Group of Polish and Jewish diplomats and activists, which produced illegal Latin American passports for at least 10,000 people, with anywhere up to a few thousand surviving the war.

Then there was the indomitable spirit of Irena Sendler, a Polish underground social worker who died 15 years ago. She saved hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, refusing to reveal their identities, even under torture.

Today, we mourn six million lost lives and many more who suffered under the barbaric Nazi machinery of discrimination. It is a day for solemn reflection on a tragedy that we must never forget.

Today is also when we remember that whoever saves one life saves the world entire.

Piotr Wilczek
Polish ambassador to the UK
London W1

The letter is also available on The Daily Telegraph's website.