Letters
Reflecting on the Essence of Auschwitz
Published: February 26, 2011
To the Editor:
Re “Auschwitz Tailors Its Story for New Generation,” by Michael Kimmelman (Abroad column, front page, Feb. 19):
As the son of Auschwitz survivors, I was appalled at what I consider a universalization and dejudaization of the Auschwitz death camp in this article. It minimizes the Jewish essence of the devastation perpetrated at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Mr. Kimmelman early on implies that the significance of Auschwitz is the same “for Jews and non-Jews alike,” then, deep into the long article, acknowledges that “hundreds of thousands of Jews” were murdered there, and, finally, engages in a superficial discussion of the “symbolic ‘ownership’ of Auschwitz.”
The overwhelming majority of the men, women and children murdered at Auschwitz were Jews. According to statistics from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “at least 960,000” of a total of between 1,080,000 and 1,085,000 of those murdered at Auschwitz — about 89 percent — were Jews. Moreover, the large subcamp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the four main gas chambers and crematories were located, was built for the principal purpose of carrying out Hitler’s “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
For most of the four decades after World War II, the Communist regime of Poland did its utmost to suppress the Jewish identity of the victims of the Holocaust, including the victims of Auschwitz. Those of us involved in promoting Holocaust remembrance thought that we had evolved since then. Apparently we were wrong.
My grandparents, my 5 1/2-year-old brother — my mother’s son — and most of the members of my immediate family were murdered in the Auschwitz gas chambers only and exclusively because they were Jews. So were close to one million other Jews, if not more.
Efforts to better explain the death camp to younger visitors must not be allowed to come at the expense of recognizing the Jewish centrality of what is the largest Jewish cemetery not just in Poland but in the world.
Menachem Z. Rosensaft
New York, Feb. 19, 2011
The writer, a lawyer and law professor, is vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.
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To the Editor:
I agree that the time has come for updating the legacy of Auschwitz for a new generation.
As my mother was herded along as human cargo through the selection process at Auschwitz upon arrival in April 1944, she was told repeatedly by prisoners who understood that a mother with a small child had no chance of survival to give her 3-year-old son to an old woman.
At first she resisted, holding tightly onto him, but as her turn neared the front of the line, she was warned once again and passed the child to her mother. At that moment she was sent to the right, they to the left.
Even today, at age 90, not a day goes by that she does not see his outstretched arms, crying for her to take him back as he and my grandmother were marched to the gas chamber and death.
The pain is as visceral now as then. If it is possible for even a moment to understand the magnitude of making impossible choices in extreme moments of duress, that is a very valuable lesson.
Etty Stern Weiner
Far Rockaway, Queens, Feb. 21, 2011
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To the Editor:
As a survivor of Birkenau and Auschwitz (Prisoner No. 82589), I was gratified to read Michael Kimmelman’s article about the efforts by Marek Zajac and Piotr Cywinski to update the memorial there.
In 1989 I returned to the site where my mother, father and I were imprisoned from June 1944 until January 1945. Although we were among the lucky few to survive, I witnessed many brutal murders from my first day to my last, and on the death march that followed.
On my return visit, I was appalled at the carnival-like atmosphere near the entrance to the camp, with vendors selling postcards and ice cream. I want to thank these young Polish men for their deep sensitivity to the site as hallowed ground, and their thoughtful and well-designed efforts to elevate the memories of those who perished at, in Mr. Zajac’s words, “the biggest cemetery in the world.”
Susan Beer
Englewood, N.J., Feb. 20, 2011
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To the Editor:
Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, says a new level of education is needed regarding the Holocaust. “It’s not enough to cry,” he states. “Empathy is noble, but it’s not enough.”
We agree. The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation has for years been the only organization in the world training future leaders in genocide prevention on the grounds of the death camp.
Our Raphael Lemkin Seminars for Genocide Prevention, which are run in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, bring midlevel government and military officials from around the world to the “biggest cemetery in the world” for seven intensive days of instruction in the history of genocide and the tools to prevent it.
We stress that genocide is a process they can stop before a drop of blood is spilled. One day, these women and men will decide the life or death of millions. What better place than Auschwitz to teach them what is at stake?
Fred Schwartz
Founder and President
Auschwitz Institute for Peace
and Reconciliation
New York, Feb. 21, 2011
