On 27th January 2023, representatives of the Remembrance Museum participated in ceremonies marking the anniversary of the liberation of the city and the Nazi German concentration camp.
Before noon, a delegation from the museum – director Dorota Mleczko and Aleksandra Bibrzycka along with foreign delegations, representatives of local governments, institutions and social organizations took part in the municipal commemoration of the anniversary of the liberation of the city and the camp at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in downtown Oświęcim. Later, director Dorota Mleczko participated in ceremonies with Survivors at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site.
One of the Survivors who told those gathered in the so-called Sauna about the inhumane living conditions at KL Auschwitz and the day of liberation was Zdzislawa Wlodarczyk (nee Bogdaszewska). She was 11 years old when she was brought to the camp from Warsaw with her parents and brother in August 1944, after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. In her speech she referred to current events:
“I listen with horror to the news from the east that there is a war there. The Russian troops who liberated us here are waging war there in Ukraine. Why? Why is there such a policy?” Zdzislawa Wlodarczyk asked.
“The period we used to call post-war is unequivocally ending before our eyes. The post-war period looked different in the East and in Western Europe. But on both sides, the buckle that short-circuited our thought and identity was the overriding consciousness of the post-war period. And all that is passing today. Innocent people are being killed en masse in Europe anew. Russia, unable to seize Ukraine, has decided to destroy it. We are seeing this every day – even now, while we are standing here. So, it is difficult to be here today,” said Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Director Piotr Cywiński.
The ceremonies ended with prayers and the laying of candles at the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium IV.
27th January has been the International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005, having been adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
To commemorate this anniversary, we encourage you to take a look at the multimedia material prepared by the Remembrance Museum. In it, residents talk about the last hours of German occupation and the entry of Red Army soldiers on 27th January, 1945: Chełmek, Kęty, Brzeszcze, Głębowice, Grodzisk, Poręba Wielka, Przeciszów, Osiek, Dwory, Stare Stawy, Oświęcim and Polanka Wielka.
You can see our landing paget here
