• Wide Angle. 75 years of the liberation of Auschwitz: the memory of the Holocaust that Europe cannot lose

Poland has ceded the prominence of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz to the 120 survivors who have had the courage to return to the place of horrors to remember the dead and revive the darkest chapter of their biographies with the intention of transmitting to the world A message: "Never again . " They were surrounded by representatives of 40 countries and, among them, King Felipe VI and Mrs. Letizia, but the courage and emotional price paid by the former prisoners, elders who could hardly contain the tears, was not rewarded with the miracle of the reconciliation they requested. Gestures were missing.

Russia, heir to the Soviet Union, liberator of Auschwitz was only represented by its ambassador to Poland. President Vladimir Putin, who did attend commemoration events a few days ago in Jerusalem, preferred to reduce the feat of the Red Army to reduce tensions with the Warsaw Government. Except for the countries of the European Union, the presence, also unlike the acts in Jerusalem was low. The United States sent the Secretary of the Treasury, the wild card of his Foreign and Defense colleagues. And the Arab countries, obvious in the case of the acts in Jerusalem but possibly in Poland they were not represented by anyone. The creation of the State of Israel and the conflicts that would generate, occurred years after the Holocaust, the greatest crime against humanity in modern history.

Dissociating politics, religion and respect for human dignity still seems impossible. And yet, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp has left a seed to hope. A delegation from the Muslim World League, headed by its president, Sheikh Mohamed al Issa, and composed of Muslim leaders from Arab countries, Scandinavia, the Balkans and the United States, has agreed to visit Auschwitz prior to the commemorative events. He has also done so on the initiative and in the company of the members of the American Jewish Committee, with its general director in charge, David Harris, 70, and the son of a Holocaust survivor.

Muslim and Jewish leaders crossed the door of death together and, in a small ceremony they cited the Torah and the Koran. The head of the Central Muslim Council in Germany, Abdassamad El Yazidi, who had never visited Auschwitz before, summed up the visit with a single adjective: "What happened here was horrible . "

"It's a family cemetery"

And there are witnesses, although less and less. Five years ago, when the seventieth anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation by the Red Army was completed, 300 survivors came and, as in this case, thanks to the financing of Jewish associations, which incurred the expenses. Although to return to Auschwitz it takes more than money. It takes courage to face the demons and remember lost family and friends. In most cases to the whole family, to all friends. "My parents were murdered here and with them all my relatives. This place is a kind of family cemetery. I was lucky, but I was left alone," says Vladimir Munk.

Born in 1915 in the city of Pardubice, in former Czechoslovakia, Munk is part of the handful of survivors who decided, after much thought, if his soul would bear to return to what will always be hell for them. He did it for consistency, "because I am a survivor and that means surviving in life, striving to lead a normal life, preventing criminals from triumphing over me."

It has not been easy for anyone. The ceremony took place in a tent raised next to the gateway to hell that was Auschwitz and the annexed complexes such as Birkenau, with the emotional pressure, sometimes unbearable of the air that surrounds that place, and the sinister profile of the barracks that follow standing.

Polish President Andrezj Duda opened the event, which was attended by some 2,500 guests, with a speech in which he appealed to the obligation to "cultivate and protect memory" and urged those present to commit themselves to the last survivors to prevent warn humanity against itself.

The commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than one million people, mostly Jews, were exterminated, was broadcast live by the Eurovision network to more than 250 countries and followed by the nearly 1,200 informants, started the day before in the library of the neighboring village of Oswiecim. For six uninterrupted hours, groups of survivors took turns telling their experiences and answering the journalists' questions. It was difficult to formulate them, eyewitnesses told this newspaper. No one dared to delve into the wounds of elders who only aroused admiration and tenderness. "The Nazis killed our loved ones, our childhood and our dreams. We cannot give them what we have left of life," Munk said later.

The ceremony at the gates of Auschwitz, with the inscription "Work makes you free", was preceded by an offering in the so-called Wall of Death. Kings Felipe VI and Doña Letizia, accompanied by the Spanish Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, deposited a crown of red and yellow flowers. On that Wall, located between the 10 and 11 field blocks, there were massive shootings before the Nazis put the gas chambers into operation.

In one of the condolences books opened in the barracks, Don Felipe wrote in English that "words are powerful if they are followed by actions" and urged them to act with truth and solidarity to preserve the memory of what happened there. "Humanity cannot fall into such horror again," he added before expressing the excitement of representing Spain on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of this camp, where there were also Spanish victims.

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  • Philip VI

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