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Voice of America
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
Auschwitz liberation at 80: Survivors, world leaders mark milestone
Around 50 survivors and dozens of world leaders attended memorial events at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation by the Soviet Red Army in World War II. January 27 is marked around the world as International Holocaust Memorial Day. Six million people were killed in the Holocaust as the Nazis attempted to eliminate the Jewish race. In front of the so-called 'Death Gate,' through which more than a million Jews and other prisoners were led to their deaths, the survivors gathered in a heated tent, joined by heads of state and delegates from across the world. They lit candles and laid wreaths of remembrance for the estimated 1.1 million people who perished at the camp. Tova Friedman, who was 2 years old when she was taken to the camp at Auschwitz, is the youngest of the survivors. 'We were victims in a moral vacuum,' she told delegates. 'But today, however, we have an obligation not only to remember, which is very, very important, but also to warn and to teach that hatred only begets more hatred.' Auschwitz liberation On Jan. 27, 1945, Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz, the largest of the six Nazi extermination camps. What they found continues to haunt humanity. Industrial-scale human slaughter spread across a vast factory complex of dormitories, gas chambers, crematoria and mass graves — the apparatus of a regime determined to wipe out the entire Jewish race. A genocide conducted over 4-and-a-half years, planned and executed with meticulous detail. It was part of the Nazis' 'final solution to the Jewish problem' — a strategy of mass murder agreed at the Wannsee Conference in 1942. An estimated 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, around 960,000 of them Jews. Poles, Roma, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities were also murdered in the thousands. Victims were stripped of their clothing and forced into packed chambers filled with cyanide-based Zyklon-B gas. By summer 1944, an estimated 12,000 people a day were being gassed to death. Thousands of others were shot or beaten to death or died from disease, starvation and exposure. Bodies were burned or buried in mass graves. 'Burning bodies' Janina Iwanska was taken to Auschwitz by train from another Polish transit camp in August 1944 at age 14. 'As soon as I got off the wagon, I was immediately hit by the smell, the one I knew from Treblinka [concentration camp] — the smell of burning bodies,' she told Reuters. 'There were small children there who were brought with their mothers. After leaving the 'disinfection' room, they were separated, torn off them. The mothers almost ripped the hands of these children off because they did not want to let them go. Besides, some of the children could not recognize their mothers, because not only were the clothes different but also the heads. A shaved head and a head with hair are two completely different heads,' Iwanska said. As Red Army troops approached the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp from the east, Nazi soldiers attempted to cover up their crimes. Around 60,000 prisoners were forcibly transferred in so-called "death marches" to other camps farther west. It's estimated that up to 15,000 died along the way. By the time the Russian troops entered Auschwitz, around 7,000 prisoners remained, most on the brink of death. Thousands died before receiving medical help. 'Culture of remembrance' Germany now embraces 'Erinnerungskultur,' an official "culture of remembrance," or a duty to take responsibility for the Holocaust. 'We keep alive the memory of the breach of civilization committed by Germans in the Holocaust and convey it to every generation in our country again and again. Our responsibility never ends,' German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said ahead of the anniversary. But the 80th anniversary comes amid growing fears over the rise of the far-right in Germany, Europe and beyond. Such concerns were voiced by many Auschwitz survivors, including Leon Weintraub, who was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and now lives in Sweden. "Be attentive and be vigilant,' Weintraub told delegates. 'We, the survivors, we understand that the consequences of being considered different is active persecution, the effects of which we have personally experienced on our own skin. So, let us be very serious, and let us take seriously what the enemies of democracy preach. They generally seek to implement these slogans they promote,' he said. German fears The German government has repeatedly warned of the dangers of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party, which is polling in second place, or around 20%, ahead of February elections. The AfD is being monitored by German intelligence services as a potentially 'extremist' party. In a recent televised conversation with Elon Musk, the U.S. billionaire and ally of President Donald Trump, AfD's leader Alice Weidel said Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was not right-wing but a 'communist.' Speaking at an AfD conference Saturday by video link, Musk, who is an open supporter of the party, questioned Germany's approach to its past. 'I think there's frankly too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that. Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let alone their parents, the great-grandparents, maybe even,' Musk said. Israel conflict The Hamas cross-border attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and the brutal Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, have overshadowed memorial events in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend the Auschwitz commemorations. Netanyahu faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for suspected war crimes committed during Israel's war on Hamas, which he strongly denies. The United States, a close ally of Israel, has condemned the warrant and threatened sanctions against the court in The Hague. Poland assured Netanyahu that he would not be arrested if he attended the Auschwitz memorial events. However, the Israeli prime minister instead spent Monday in a Tel Aviv court as his long-running corruption trial resumed. Israel was instead represented by Education Minister Yoav Kisch. Relatives of the dozens of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza traveled to Poland for the Auschwitz liberation anniversary, while survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre joined survivors of the Holocaust for commemorative events in Israel.
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Memory hurts, memory guides': Auschwitz's survivors gather for 80th anniversary of camp's liberation
On a day of startling blue skies, Auschwitz survivors stood before princes and presidents on Monday to remind the world, perhaps for the final time, of the horrors they had suffered there during one of the darkest moments of human history. Beneath a white marquee erected in front of the gate to the former Nazi death camp, four former inmates – the youngest 86, the oldest 99 – warned world leaders on the 80th anniversary of its liberation against the danger of rising antisemitism. Tova Friedman, 86, was five when she came to the camp, but said her memories were still 'so vivid'. She recalled 'the cries of desperate women', the 'terrible stink' of the chimneys, six and seven-year-olds led shoeless through the snow to gas chambers. 'We are here to proclaim … that we can never, ever allow history to repeat itself,' she said. 'But eight decades after the camp's liberation, she said, 'our Jewish-Christian values are once more overshadowed by prejudice, fear, suspicion, extremism'. With nationalist and far-right parties gaining support across Europe and disinformation increasingly distorting the history of the Holocaust, this year's anniversary carried special weight. Memories of one of humanity's worst atrocities are fading. In front of one of the freight wagons that carried people here like cattle, Marian Turski, 98, condemned a 'huge rise' in antisemitism, and called for 'courage' against Holocaust minimisers and conspiracy theorists. Leon Weintraub, 99, who managed to sneak out of Auschwitz by joining a group of prisoners working outside the camp, urged vigilance against a resurgent European far right with its ideology of 'hostility and resentment' against all who are different. 'Let's take seriously what the enemies of democracy preach,' he said. 'We, survivors, understand that the consequence of 'being different' is active persecution, which we have personally experienced,' he said. 'We must avoid the mistakes of the 1930s.' Janina Iwańska, 94, a Polish Catholic and inmate number 85595 at Auschwitz, said nobody knew exactly how many people had died there. By liberation day only the sick, the young and pregnant women were left, she said: 'It was a killing factory.' Speaking after the survivors, the World Jewish Congress president, Ronald Lauder, said the horrors of Auschwitz and Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel were both inspired by 'the age-old hatred of Jews'. Antisemitism 'had its willing supporters then, and it has them now,' he said. When Auschwitz was liberated, the world saw where 'the step-by-step progress of antisemitism leads. It leads right here … Things are not OK.' Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi death camps, and has become a symbol of the genocide of 6 million European Jews. An estimated one million died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jewish people. 'Memory hurts, memory helps, memory guides, memory warns,' said the Auschwitz museum director, Piotr Cywinski. Turning to the survivors, he said their experiences 'shape our memory … And what do we do with that memory today?' After Jewish prayers, accompanied by music written by composers who had themselves been Auschwitz inmates, 56 survivors helped by relatives and young assistants laid votive candles, followed by the heads of 54 national delegations. Among them were presidents Emmanuel Macron of France, Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Sergio Mattarella of Italy and Alexander van der Bellen of Austria; they were jointed by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and prime ministers from Canada, Croatia and Ireland. The members of royalty in attendance included Kings Charles of Britain, Felipe of Spain, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Philippe of Belgium, Frederik of Denmark and Haakon of Norway, as well as Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. Other countries, including Israel and the US, sent ministers or ambassadors. Russia was not invited (although in Moscow, Vladimir Putin hailed the Red Army soldiers who liberated Auschwitz for having ended the 'terrible, total evil' of the camp.) None were called on to speak. 'Twenty years ago, we had more than 1,000 survivors here; 10 years ago it was 300. Five years ago, we had 100, and today – not many more than 50. In 10 years' time, how many will there be?' said Paweł Sawicki, a museum spokesperson. 'That's why it's so incredibly important that we focus just on these survivors.' Earlier in the day, elderly former inmates, some wearing blue-and-white striped scarves recalling their prison uniforms, laid wreaths and lit candles at Auschwitz's Death Wall, where thousands of camp inmates were executed by firing squad. Since the occupying Nazi Germans had 'built this extermination industry and this concentration camp' on their country's land, said Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, 'we Poles are today the guardians of memory'. Sawicki said this year's anniversary was particularly significant not just because of the survivors' advancing age, but because of growing distortion of the history of the Holocaust, fuelled particularly by disinformation on social media. 'For people born 30 or 40 years ago, they learned this history at the family table, from their grandparents,' he said. 'But for today's generations, the Holocaust textbook history, and textbook history, is a much more fragile history, much easier to distort.' A recent poll found proportions of young European adults sometimes running into high double-digits had not heard of the Holocaust, could not name Auschwitz or any other camp and had encountered Holocaust denial or distortion, mainly online. Considerable numbers thought the number of Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust had been exaggerated, with many – including 24% in Poland, 21% in France, 20% in the UK and 18% in Germany – believing 2 million or fewer people had died. The continent's increasingly polarised politics, and the success of nativist parties, have also turned the remembrance of Nazi crimes into an intensely political issue. The US tech mogul Elon Musk this weekend told a rally of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party it was time for Germany to move on, saying children 'should not be guilty of the sins of their parents – let alone their great grandparents'. Those who died at Auschwitz were either murdered in gas chambers or perished from starvation, cold and disease. Mostly Jews, they also included Polish resistance fighters, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners, sexual minorities and disabled people. Nazi Germany established the camp in 1940 within former barracks in the southern Polish town of Oświęcim, later establishing about 40 other camps in the area, including Birkenau, which was used for mass killings in gas chambers. On 17 January 1945, as Soviet troops advanced into formerly Nazi-held territory, the paramilitary SS forced 60,000 emaciated prisoners to walk westward in what became known as the Death March, and over the following days the gas chambers and crematoriums were blown up. On 27 January, Soviet troops arrived, finding 7,000 emaciated survivors. The UN has designated the day Auschwitz was liberated as Holocaust Memorial Day and the site is now a Polish state museum and memorial visited by nearly 2 million people a year.
Los Angeles Times
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Auschwitz memorial holds observances on the 80th anniversary of the death camp's liberation
OSWIECIM, Poland — The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops was marked Monday at the site of the former death camp in a ceremony widely considered to be the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend. Among those who traveled to the site was 86-year-old Tova Friedman, who was 6 when she was among the 7,000 people liberated on Jan. 27, 1945. She believes it will the be last gathering of survivors at Auschwitz and she came from her home in New Jersey to add her voice to those warning about rising hatred and antisemitism. 'The world has become toxic,' she told the Associated Press a day before the observances in nearby Krakow. 'I realize that we're in a crisis again, that there is so much hatred around, so much distrust, that if we don't stop, it may get worse and worse. There may be another terrible destruction.' Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination in the Nazi racial ideology. Elderly camp survivors, some wearing blue-and-white striped scarves that recall their prison uniforms, walked together to the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed, including Poles who resisted the occupation of their country. They were joined by Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation lost 6 million citizens during the war. He carried a candle and walked with Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum director Piotr Cywinski. At the wall, the two men bowed their heads, murmured prayers and crossed themselves. 'We Poles, on whose land — occupied by Nazi Germans at that time — the Germans built this extermination industry and this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory,' Duda told reporters afterward. He spoke of the 'unimaginable harm' inflicted on so many people, especially the Jewish people. In all, the Nazis regime murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe's Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Across Europe, officials and others paused to remember. 'As the last survivors fade, it is our duty as Europeans to remember the unspeakable crimes and to honor the memories of the victims,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is German, said on X. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who leads a nation defending itself against Russia's brutal invasion, placed a candle at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial a day before in Kyiv, where tens of thousands of Jews were executed during the Nazi occupation. On Monday he arrived in Poland to attend the commemorations. 'The evil that seeks to destroy the lives of entire nations still remains in the world,' he wrote on his Telegram page. Commemorations were to culminate when world leaders and royalty joined with elderly camp survivors, the youngest of whom are in their 80s, at Birkenau, the part of Auschwitz where the mass murder of Jews took place. Politicians, however, have not been asked to speak this year. Due to the advanced age of the survivors, about 50 of whom were expected, organizers chose to make them the center of the observances. Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, was also slated to speak. Among the leaders scheduled to attend were Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Germany has never sent both of its highest state representatives to the observances before, according to German news agency dpa. Their presence was a sign of Germany's continued commitment to take responsibility for the nation's crimes, even with a far-right party gaining increased support in recent years. French President Emmanuel Macron was also to attend after paying his respects at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, a symbolic tomb for the 6 million Jews who don't have a grave, and meeting with a survivor from Auschwitz and one from the Bergen-Belsen camp. Britain's King Charles III was also to be there, along with kings and queens from Spain, Denmark and Norway. Russian representatives were in the past central guests at the anniversary observances in recognition of the Red Army's liberation of the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, and the huge losses of Soviet forces in the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. But they have not been welcome since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to participants saying: 'We will always remember that it was the Soviet soldier who crushed this dreadful, total evil and won the victory, the greatness of which will forever remain in world history.' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a briefing Thursday: 'There is something that needs to be said to the organizers and all the Europeans who will be there: Your lives, your work and leisure, the very existence of your nations, your children have been paid for by Soviet soldiers, their lives, their blood.' Gera writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
Chicago Tribune
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Auschwitz memorial holds observances on the 80th anniversary of the death camp's liberation
OSWIECIM, Poland — The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops is being marked on Monday at the site of the former death camp, a ceremony that is widely being treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend. Among those who traveled to the site is 86-year-old Tova Friedman, who was 6 when she was among the 7,000 people liberated on Jan. 27, 1945. She believes it will the be last gathering of survivors at Auschwitz and she came from her home in New Jersey to add her voice to those warning about rising hatred and antisemitism. 'The world has become toxic,' she told The Associated Press a day before the observances in nearby Krakow. 'I realize that we're in a crisis again, that there is so much hatred around, so much distrust, that if we don't stop, it may get worse and worse. There may be another terrible destruction.' Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination in the Nazi racial ideology. Elderly camp survivors, some wearing blue-and-white striped scarves that recall their prison uniforms, walked together to the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed, including Poles who resisted the occupation of their country. They were joined by Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation lost 6 million citizens during the war. He carried a candle and walked with Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum director Piotr Cywinski. At the wall, the two men bowed their heads, murmured prayers and crossed themselves. 'We Poles, on whose land — occupied by Nazi Germans at that time — the Germans built this extermination industry and this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory,' Duda told reporters afterward. He spoke of the 'unimaginable harm' inflicted on so many people, especially the Jewish people. In all, the Nazis regime murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe's Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Across Europe, officials and others were pausing to remember. 'As the last survivors fade, it is our duty as Europeans to remember the unspeakable crimes and to honor the memories of the victims,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is German, said on X. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who leads a nation defending itself against Russia's brutal invasion, placed a candle at the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial a day before in Kyiv, where tens of thousands of Jews were executed during the Nazi occupation. On Monday he arrived in Poland to attend the commemorations. 'The evil that seeks to destroy the lives of entire nations still remains in the world,' he wrote on his Telegram page. Commemorations will culminate when world leaders and royalty will join with elderly camp survivors, the youngest of whom are in their 80s, at Birkenau, the part of Auschwitz where the mass murder of Jews took place. Politicians, however, have not been asked to speak this year. Due to the advanced age of the survivors, about 50 of whom are expected, organizers are choosing to make them the center of the observances. Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, will also speak. Among the leaders expected to attend are Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Germany has never sent both of its highest state representatives to the observances before, according to German news agency dpa. It is a sign of Germany's continued commitment to take responsibility for the nation's crimes, even with a far-right party gaining increased support in recent years. French President Emmanuel Macron will attend after paying his respects at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, a symbolic tomb for the 6 million Jews who don't have a grave, and meeting with a survivor from Auschwitz and one from the Bergen-Belsen camp. Britain's King Charles III will also be there, along with kings and queens from Spain, Denmark and Norway. Russian representatives were in the past central guests at the anniversary observances in recognition of the Red Army liberation of the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, and the huge losses of Soviet forces in the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. But they have not been welcome since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to participants saying: 'We will always remember that it was the Soviet soldier who crushed this dreadful, total evil and won the victory, the greatness of which will forever remain in world history.' Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a briefing Thursday: 'There is something that needs to be said to the organizers and all the Europeans who will be there: your lives, your work and leisure, the very existence of your nations, your children have been paid for by Soviet soldiers, their lives, their blood.' Originally Published:
Sky News
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
King warns of 'dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism' as he pays tribute to Holocaust survivors
Why you can trust Sky News The King has warned of the "dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism" while meeting Holocaust survivors on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long for the world," he said on a visit to the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, which he opened in 2008. The King then joined survivors and other dignitaries at Auschwitz, marking the first time that a serving British monarch has visited the concentration camp where more than a million people were murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime. Before he laid a candle as the UK's representative at the ceremony, three Holocaust survivors shared their stories, with Tova Friedman saying she felt it was "normal" that "as a Jewish child they all had to die". Janina Iwanska also said: "It is difficult to calculate all the people killed here." Kate, the Princess of Wales, will also join Prince William at a Holocaust commemoration ceremony in London later on Monday. The royals will pay their respects alongside Sir Keir Starmer and hear survivors and campaigners speak. 'Remembering the evils of the past remains vital; Speaking in Krakow, the King said: "In a world that remains full of turmoil and strife, and has witnessed the dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism, there can be no more important message. "As the number of Holocaust survivors regrettably diminishes with the passage of time, the responsibility of remembrance rests far heavier on our shoulders and on those of generations yet unborn. "The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in so doing, we inform our present and shape our future. "Here in Krakow, from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has been reborn." King's poignant journey to Auschwitz a display of his lifelong commitment to Holocaust survivors Rhiannon Mills Royal correspondent @SkyRhiannon The King had a clear purpose as he made his first visit to Auschwitz. Remembrance - but also the high cost of forgetting. It was right at the heart of a speech he gave at a Jewish community centre in Krakow, which he opened in 2008; a reminder of his enduring work to champion religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue, ever mindful of what he can do with his global profile. In the auditorium at Auschwitz, he was one of the most recognisable attendees. But as is so often the case with the Royal Family, his intention was to use his presence to draw even greater attention to those who really matter, the survivors. The Holocaust Educational Trust described his attendance as elevating the event on a global stage, a signal to the world of its significance. It was a display of his lifelong commitment to humanise and give a voice to those who 80 years ago were so savagely dehumanised at the hands of the Nazis. The King went on to say there is "no greater symbol" of that rebirth than the centre he is speaking in itself. "In a post-Holocaust world, projects such as this, this centre, is how we recover our faith in humanity," he said. "They also show us there is much work still to be done," he says, adding that it's important not just to remember the past, "but to use it to inspire us to build a kinder and more compassionate world for future generations". "This remains the sacred task of us all," he added. Later, the King joined world leaders like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Auschwitz, as those who lived through the Holocaust shared their stories of survival. 'The killing machine' Ms Iwanska said that while the camp was originally for political prisoners, in March 1942, "the operators of the camp started building gas chambers and the crematorium". "It was no longer a POW camp, a Soviet camp - this is when the killing machine started its operation," she added. "It is difficult to calculate all the people killed here." Ms Friedman also told those in attendance: "I remember as a five-year-old child watching from my hiding place as all my little friends were rounded up and driven to their deaths while the heartbreaking cries of their parents fell on deaf ears. "After all the children were gone and the courtyard was empty - I thought 'am I the only Jewish child left in the world?'" 2:15 She recalled that while held in Auschwitz, she "was being beaten mercilessly by a guard for fidgeting for not being able to stand still for hours," as she looked into her mother's eyes. "She was pleading with me 'don't cry'. And I didn't. At five I had the rebellion in me that I would not let them know the pain they are inflicting on me." More than a million people were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during the Second World War, most of whom were Jews but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities. Six million Jewish men, women and children died during the Holocaust. Commemorations at the former death camp began earlier when Poland's President Andrzej Duda joined Auschwitz survivors laying wreaths and candles at the site. 3:31 Their tributes were left at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people, mainly Polish political prisoners, were executed. In a speech, Mr Duda said "we Poles are the guardians of memory today" and had a duty to maintain the life stories of the survivors.
