Tomorrow will be 80 years to the day since the world discovered the horror of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Poland. It was on January 27, 1945 that this unthinkable place, where more than a million Jews died, was liberated. A few days ago, around a hundred young Belgians went there. They benefited from an exceptional companion: Simon Gronowski, 93 years old, one of the survivors of the “final solution” envisaged by the Nazis.
For the third time, Simon Gronowski goes to the cemetery, where his mother and sister died in a gas chamber without ever having a grave. “I think of my parents and my sister every day“, he confesses.
But the trip does not go as planned. The train is attacked by resistance fighters. Simon obeys his mother. He jumps. “My mother gave me life twice: when I was born, and the day I escaped. And if she gave me life, it was not so that she would be unhappy, but happy. I am therefore happy out of loyalty to my parents“, explains Simon.
Happy despite the cold, despite the winter of Auschwitz. Happy, because the gas chambers are nothing more than ruins. Happy in the middle of a hundred young people shaken by what they discover. “There are a lot of emotions when we get there. It’s a shock, already. Lots of sadness too. It’s a horror. It’s horrible what happened“, they say.”In photos, we don’t necessarily realize the size, the cold, the ground, etc. This is really what struck me the most here.“, say students.
-1,300,000 people were deported to Auschwitz. 1,100,000 died. Most within hours of their arrival. 90% of these victims were Jewish.
Simon says. He tirelessly warns against the return of barbarism. But soon this generation which was not supposed to survive will die out. Michel Jaupart, director of War Heritage Instituteexplain : “First, there are fewer and fewer witnesses. They are less and less able to testify, for obvious age reasons. And that makes the work we have been doing for a very long time all the more necessary.“.
An essential and violent work of memory, necessary for history to stop repeating itself.
second world war Auschwitz Nazism Jewish survivors
