Marian Turski, Holocaust survivor who warned of the danger of indifference, dies at 98

Boston Globe

18-02-2025

Mr. Turski survived the Lodz ghetto, where he and his family were forced to live, two death marches, and imprisonment at the Nazi German concentration camps Buchenwald and Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was in German-occupied Poland. He lost 39 relatives in the Holocaust.
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Unlike many Jewish survivors who left postwar Poland, Mr. Turski chose to remain. He was on the political left his entire life and was a member of the Communist Party. While on a scholarship to the United States in 1965, he marched from Selma to Montgomery with Martin Luther King Jr. in support of civil rights for Black Americans.
Mr. Turski was among a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors and spoke during observances last month marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
It was a stark warning about the dangers of indifference at the 75th anniversary that brought him international attention and raised his moral profile among his supporters. Mr. Turski said at the time the Holocaust did not 'fall from the sky' all at once but took hold step by step as society's acceptance of small acts of discrimination eventually led to ghettos and extermination camps.
With world leaders in the audience, Mr. Turski called on people to not remain indifferent when minorities are discriminated against, when history is distorted, and when 'any authority violates the existing social contract.'
Many in Poland interpreted his words as a critique of the right-wing government in power at the time. Some who felt targeted criticized him for using the Auschwitz anniversary to comment on the political situation, or suggested that Mr. Turski lacked the moral authority for such a warning because of his past support for communism.
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Citing the words of another survivor, Roman Kent, Mr. Turski described what should be the Eleventh Commandment of the Bible: 'Though shalt not be indifferent.'
'Because if you are indifferent, before you know it, another Auschwitz will come out of the blue for you or your descendants,' he warned.
Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said members of the Jewish community would miss him greatly.
'Marian was our teacher, he was our moral voice and mentor. He was steeped in Jewish wisdom and used it to guide us on how to face today's problems. We are so blessed that we had Marian with us for so many years,' Schudrich said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday after Mr. Turski's death that those words had become 'a motto for us,' adding on X: 'The 11th Commandment for these difficult times.'
Poland's conservative President Andrzej Duda also paid tribute to Turski, saying: 'He consistently spoke about the need to cultivate sensitivity to evil. May his memory be honored!'
He was born on June 26, 1926, as Mosze Turbowicz and spent his childhood and teenage years in Lodz, where he attended a Hebrew language school.
In 1944, his parents and brother were deported to the German Nazi camp Auschwitz, and he arrived there two weeks later in one of the last transports.
His father and brother died in the gas chambers, while his mother was sent to work at the Bergen Belsen camp in northern Germany, and Mr. Turski was dispatched to work on roads in the Auschwitz-Birkenau area before being sent on two death marches. He was liberated at Terezin, close to death from exhaustion and typhus.
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In September 1945, he returned to Poland, a committed communist who wanted to help build a socialist Poland. When a communist official recommended that he change his name to adopt one that didn't sound Jewish, he complied, a biography published by the POLIN museum said.
He used his last time on the stage at last month's Auschwitz anniversary observance to warn of the dangers of hatred and to recall that the number of those murdered was always far greater than the smaller group of survivors.
'We have always been a tiny minority,' he said. 'And now only a handful remain.'