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Gedenken in Auschwitz-Birkenau

In den vergangenen Jahren hat Halina Birenbaum (geboren am 15. September 1929 in Warschau) als Überlebende des Holocausts den ASGSG-Schülerinnen und ASGSG-Schülern von ihrem Leben und insbesondere ihrem Überleben im KZ-Lager Auschwitz berichtet. Durch die Corona-Pandemie und infolge des Alters von Frau Birenbaum war es leider nicht mehr möglich, dass sie zum ASGSG kommt. Einen engen Kontakt zu Halina Birenbaum pflegt Christel Schrieverhoff, ehemalige Lehrerin am ASGSG, die am 27. Jan. 2024 an der Gedenkfeier in Auschwitz-Birkenau teilnahm und uns die Informationen zukommen ließ. Vielen Dank dafür.

Evil does not beget good, but good cannot be conquered. 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz 

On 27 January 2024, twenty Auschwitz and Holocaust Survivors took part in the commemoration of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The event was held under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda.

The witnesses of history were accompanied, among others, by the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, the Vice-Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Dorota Niedziela, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, Minister Wojciech Kolarski from the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, as well as other representatives of state authorities from Poland, ambassadors and diplomats, representatives of the clergy, regional authorities, local goverments, museum staff, and memorial sites.

The theme of the anniversary was a human, symbolically visualised by the faces of the people imprisoned at Auschwitz, immortalised in drawings made during the existence of the camp and after the war.

At the beginning of the anniversary an Auschwitz Survivor Halina Birenbaum took the floor.

Halina Birenbaum was born in 1929 in Warsaw. During World War II, she was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto and then in several German concentration camps, including Majdanek, where she lost her mother, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück, and Neustadt-Glewe. Her father was murdered in Treblinka. Out of all her relatives, only her brother survived the war. In 1947, she emigrated to Israel, where she pursued literary work.

"I stand here today deeply moved together with you – in a place from which one could exit only as smoke from the chimney. The anniversary commemorations are taking place this year in front of barracks number 27, my barracks, where I slept on the upper bunk opposite the entrance door," she said.

"Since my liberation at the age of 15, until today's present 94 and a half, I have been telling and writing, describing these stories, retelling them in different countries and different languages. I lived to see liberation and a long life during the subsequent wars. I am painfully aware of the sufferings and tragedies of the present wars and of the present people. Russia's attack on Ukraine. In our country, terrorist attacks, barbaric attacks by Hamas, and war from all sides. The sons and daughters of the few survivors of the Holocaust are falling. Already having rebuilt a new life, in the new homeland of Israel,” she stressed.

"Evil does not beget good, but good cannot be conquered. The world cannot be exterminated, it cannot be destroyed. It must be vigilant, it cannot be indifferent. I am sure that this is what will happen. Shalom,” Halina Birenbaum concluded her speech.

https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/evil-does-not-beget-good-but-good-cannot-be-conquered-79th-anniversary-of-the-liberation-of-auschwitz,1668.html