Congratulating the people of Ukraine for conducting a democratic, transparent, and fair runoff presidential election on December 26, 2004, and congratulating Viktor Yushchenko on his election as President of Ukraine and his commitment to democracy and reform.

Madam Speaker, I would like to place in the Record the compelling story of Mr. Marian Wojciechowski, now a U.S. citizen, who is an Auschwitz survivor. The book ``Seven Roads to Freedom'', in which his chapter is included, traces the tragic journey of 6 million human beings who perished in Nazi death camps. Mr. Wojciechowski and his wife Wladyslawa survived, by a series of miracles and brave encounters. History must record these noble stories so their vast sacrifice shall be remembered and honored. May the world save itself in the future from this horrific suffering. This story, translated into English, from the original Polish publication deserves our attention and respect on this 60th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Seven Roads to Freedom

(Edited by Miroslawa Zawadzka and Andrzej Zawadzki)

The Martyrology of Poles in Hilter's Death Camps

(Translated by: Anna Wojciechowski)

(A Presentation delivered by Marian Wojciechowski on May 8,

1998 to the Discussion Club at the American Polish Cultural

Center in Troy, Michigan, USA).

``Who is victorious shall be free, and who has died is

already free.''--words from ``Warszawianka''

6 million victims of the Holocaust in Poland in the years

1939-1945: 3 million Christian Poles; 3 million Jewish Poles.

The historians of future generations will research the

archives, evaluate and then write how many additional

hundreds of thousands of Polish Christians--on whose orders,

where, by whom and under what circumstances--were murdered in

the years 1939-1989 by the henchmen of communist authorities.

1. introduction

I'm very happy that I came here, because I see that I have

already met here many colleagues and friends from past

times--now pleasant ones, in America--as well as from the

times of our national martyrology: the occupation and the

concentration camps. I was in three concentration camps, in

Auschwitz, Gross Rosen and Leitmeritz, and here I meet after

many years my colleague, Mr. Romanski, who was in the same

camps and we knew each other in Gross Rosen and met there

together quite frequently; and with the husband of Mrs.

Romanska, who is here today--Zbyszek Romanski and I were

friends, and we talked for many hours during the time free

from labor in the Gross Rosen camp.

At the beginning I would like to make clear, that I am

describing my wartime and concentration camp experiences not

for the purpose of inciting any hatred in anyone, or anger,

or a desire for revenge. Absolutely not. For a long time, I

was unable either to speak or to write on this subject,

because there stood before my eyes all the macabre scenes

which one saw then, as well as deaths, which took away many

of my friends and acquaintances under horrible camp

conditions. I was afraid of these memories; I did not want to

talk about them.

But time heals wounds, and in the end, we see that it is

necessary to touch on this subject, because history repeats

itself. History repeats itself especially there, where it is

forgotten. We pass it on, to avoid forgetting it and

repeating its horrible moments. Some of us (for example, my

colleague Romanski) are still in the possession of authentic

notes written in the heat of the moment, in the camps, in

pencil, already faded today. These historical artifacts

should not be allowed to disappear; we have to take care of

their conservation.

My narration pertains to my own experiences. As those who

survived the concentration camps also know very well, in the

same camp, and even during the same time period and

commando--it was possible to have more luck or less, to

encounter better or worse conditions and treatment, to

survive or to perish. My reminiscences then cannot be related

exactly to the fate of other prisoners. Almighty God helped

me in these oppressions, and I survived.

I will begin with my youth, which has a connection with the

main topic of my story. I come from the region of Sandomierz.

Forty some kilometers to the south of Sandomierz, there is a

small town called Polaniec, laid out on sandy soil. In the

area, there were two or three mills, and at that time there

was no factory or work establishment, besides the Ruszcza

estate where one could get agricultural work. I remember,

that in those difficult times after the First World War, the

local small landowners ate bread only on such important feast

days like Christmas and Easter, or during the harvest. For

everyday meals, there was barszcz and potatoes for breakfast,

lunch and supper. Not until somewhat later, around 1937, did

construction begin there (for example, the embankments near

the Wisla river). which gave people work and better

conditions for living. Besides, these people worked very well

and the results were very beautiful. Afterwards, industrial

centers (COP--Centralny Okreg Przemyslowy) were also built,

and the situation was systematically improved.

After finishing elementary school in Polaniec, in 1939 I

received my high school diploma in Busko-Zdroj (in the

beautiful newly constructed building) and went to the Szkola

Glowna Handlowa in Warsaw (Warsaw School of Economics). My

parents, who were small farmers, did not have the funds to

pay for my tuition, clothes, and room and board. That's why,

during the four years of high school, my brother and I earned

money for our keep by tutoring for money. I would get up at

around 5, no later than 6 in the morning, and I would go to

bed after 11 in the evening. During the last two years I was

a so-called ``Marszalek'' (the chairman of chairmen) of the

high school. During my college studies in Warsaw, I was able

to get a job as the assistant of the secretary in the Union

of Agricultural and Economic Cooperatives (Zwiazek

Spoldzielni Rolniczych i Zarobkowo-Gospodarczych), with the

benefit of being able to do my work during the day or at

night, during the workweek, as well as on Saturdays and

Sundays.

Even before the beginning of my studies I belonged to the

Polish Scouting movement, I participated in military

preparation, I was interested in various political directions

and social problems, trying to find answers to the question,

how we should manage our country, in order to improve the

welfare of the people. During my college studies. I had many

colleagues with various persuasions.

There were many forms of the so-called ``sanacja'' of the

former Pilsudski camp, such as Straz Przednia, Legion

Mlodych, BBWR, OZON, various shades of the Stronnictwo

Narodowe, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, Stronnictwo Ludowe.

There were some who communized (Jerzy Wuensche, Roman Ujma).

There were also a few who usually played cards in the

restrooms of the library, and some who were not interested in

anything beyond their studies.

I studied two faculties simultaneously: cooperatives and

business education; and of the required foreign languages,

German and English. I joined the group of friends of the

Stronnictwo Ludowe.

In discussions then we searched for the appropriate road to

improve the conditions in the country. While still in high

school, I read a copy of Kapital by Marx, translated into

Polish, which I borrowed from the local Jewish library. By

such searching around, I came to the conclusion that in

Poland we must work out our own way, and I found--the

cooperative movement. Working in the co-op movement, first as

the secretary's assistant, and later as an auditor of the

agricultural-cooperatives, I made contacts with many people

of the Warsaw and Lodz provinces, which helped me very much

during WWII in the underground resistance.

Immediately after my studies, I performed my military

service in the School of Ensizns of the Cavalry (Szkola

Podchorazych Kawalerii) in Grudziadz, and after finishing

there, I was assigned to the 21st Regiment of the

Nadwislanski Lancers (21-szy Pulk Ulanow Nadwislanskich) in

Rowne Wolynskie, in the Luck province.

During military service in the cavalry military college in

Grudziadz, I taught evening courses after service hours about

cooperatives for the non-career soldiers in Grudziadl. I

organized courses in wheat-product (``zbozowo-towarowe:''

purchase. cleaning, milling, revision, storage, sale as well

as basic bookkeeping). The point was that after returning to

their homes from the army, they could join in the co-op work

in their hometowns.

That's a broad view of what my prewar past looked like.

2. THE WAR OF 1939

During the war in 1939 I was with my regiment in the Lodz

Army, in the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade, in the region around

the locality of Mokra near Czestochowa. History appraises our

battles there very positively.

During the retreat towards Warsaw, my platoon was in the

rear guard that is in shielding formation, Before reaching

Warsaw, I received the order to march on Garwolin and further

on east for regrouping. But other detachments of my regiment,

walking behind us, received an order to remain in the

vicinity of Warsaw to defend the capital (I learned about

this from the leadership of the regiment after the military

actions of 1939 were over). Because Garwolin was already

burning, my platoon and I joined in with various detachments

of the Army of General Kleeberg--the grouping, of

Lieutenant-Colonel Mossor (Czas Ulanow, Bohdan

Krolikowski, page 217 and we took part in the successful

cavalry charge of Cavalry Captain Burtowy (ibid, page 221)

at the same time that Lieutenant-Colonel Mossor

surrendered to the Germans with the rest of the grouping

in the forest near Osuchowo.

The disbanding of our detachment did not take place until

the area near Uchnowo or Rawa Ruska at night, when the

Germans were attacking us from one side of the forest, and

Soviet detachments were attacking from the other side. The

order was: bury the weapons and ammunition, give the horses

and uniforms to the peasants, change into civilian clothes,

march home and await further orders.

Over half of the soldiers of my platoon came from Wolyn.

The entire detachment was a well-harmonized group, fought

bravely, heroically. The losses in human lives were large. My

deputy, a Wolynian, Corporal Szkurski was killed in the first

week of the war. I filled the losses in this way, by putting

always-willing volunteers, stray infantrymen, on the horses

left by those who were killed. I named as my deputy one of

the leaders of the section, a senior lancer. He fulfilled his

function very well.

After changing into civilian clothes, groups of people

started to form in a loose march towards different

directions: to their homes, to nearby relatives and

acquaintances. I proposed a march through Hungary or Rumania

to the Polish Army in France. Two colleagues joined in: one a

second lieutenant of the reserve of a different detachment,

who was originally from Warsaw, and one ensign of the career

school of cavalry. As I recall, his name was Bratkowski or

Bartkowski, having finished his second year. We agreed to go

to Stanislawow, stay there with a colleague of Bratkowski's

and look for a way to cross the border. After a few hours the

Russians detained us, and added us to a group of demobilized

soldiers headed for Lwow.

After various difficulties we were able to leave the

barracks in Lwow and get to the colleague's house in

Stanislawow. We were received hospitably, but with fear that

the Soviets might find us, because then the whole family was

in danger of arrest. After a few days of gathering news, we

determined that the Rumanian border was surrounded by the

army with dogs, and that crossing the border seemed to be

impossible at that time. After about a week, we decided we

couldn't place Bratkowski's friend's entire family in danger,

we had to return to Warsaw. We reached the new Soviet-German

border and there we fell into Germans hands. They packed us

into autos and conveyed the entire transport to Radom, where

we were unloaded onto an empty field fenced in with barbed

wire. During the night, the two of us dug our way out under

the barbed wire and fled in the direction of Warsaw.

Sometime towards the end of October 1939, we got to the

locality of Pyry near Warsaw. The farmer let us sleep in the

barn. The next day we were invited in for breakfast, and they

told us about the destruction and lack of food in Warsaw.

After breakfast my colleague and I parted company. He went in

the direction of his home, and I towards my rented room on

Narbutta Street. A friend of mine from studies in the Szkola

Glowna Handlowa (Warsaw School of Economics), Hieronim Tatar

and I rented one room, two other student acquaintances rented

the second room, and the lanlords took up the rest of the

house.

However, it appeared that the landlords had already signed

the volksliste, so that after a few days, my colleague Tatar

and I moved in with a colleague from school--Andrzejewski, on

Mokotowska Street. The two of us took up one room. The rest

of the house was occupied by our colleague Andrzejewski, his

mother and his elderly grandfather Jakubowski (the mother's

father).

3. PROFESSIONAL WORK AND THE UNDERGROUND

Immediately the next day after returning to Warsaw, I went

to my place of employment, the Zwiazek Spoldzielni Rolniczych

i Zarobkowo-Gospodarczych (the Union of Agricultural and

Economic Cooperatives) in Warsaw, 11a Warecka Street. The

Kasa Spoldzielcza (Cooperative Cashier) occupied the first

floor, the second floor was taken up by the Okreg w Warszawie

(Warsaw District), the sections Rolniczo-Handlowy,

Jajczarsko-Mleczarski (agricultural-commerce and ovo-dairy),

as well as the cashiers and Banki Spoldzielcze (Cooperative

Banks). The third floor was occupied by the Zarzad Centrali

(Central Administration), and the Institytut Spoldzielczy

(Cooperative Institute) was on the fourth floor. Many workers

``camped out'' there with their families, because family

members were slowly finding each other.

During the siege of Warsaw food supplies were exhausted,

the prices on the black market were very high, and a large

part of the populace was starving. Situations were especially

difficult in hospitals, children shelters and so on. Many of

my coworkers denied themselves part of what were rightfully

their own rationed portions to jointly gather food supplies,

for example for the hospitals. The director of the section of

agricultural-commerce cooperatives was senior colleague

Franciszek Kielan, a very honest individual, unusually

generous and universally much respected. He convinced the

German commissar on cooperative matters in Warsaw to

transport food for the employees from the cooperative in

Kutno (the largest cooperative in the Warsaw district).

Along with fellow friend Jan Boniuk, we set out for Kutno

and brought to Warsaw, to our office, a food-filled ladder

wagon harnessed to three horses. Part of the food was

designated for hospitals, and the rest was divided according

to the number of members in each family, regardless of the

employee's position. A majority of the younger co-op

employees began to carry food to the hospitals. In this way,

I found in the hospital (probably the Ujazdowski Hospital)

the leader of my regiment, the 21st Regiment of the

Nadwislanski Lancers from the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade

Lieutenant-Colonel Kazimierz Rostwosuski, as well as many

officers from our regiment and brigade. I have to admit, that

from that time on the food situation in the hospital improved

very much.

After a certain time, we learned that the officers in the

hospital were going to be transported somewhere, and that the

Germans were already examining the lists of patients. I had

the most acquaintances in the municipal offices in the former

Sandomierski district. So I set out on a circuit and brought

back as many as possible of clean unfilled personal

identification documents (identity cards) and municipal

seals. I brought all these back to Warsaw and handed them

over to the reconnaissance liaison from Sluzba Zwyciestwu

Polski (SWP--Service for the Victory of Poland). I already

belonged at that time to the underground group ``Raclawice.''

After a few days, the sick officers were released from the

hospital and directed to an agreed upon residence location.

The new identity cards turned out to be very good--they

passed the test.

One day, the wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Rostwosuski

contacted my office to let me know not to spend the night at

home, because her husband was arrested during a street

roundup (lapanka) and would be interrogated by the Gestapo

that night. Luckily the next day, she advised me that he had

already been released on the basis of a previously issued

identity card (as I recall, it was issued to an

``agricultural engineer'' from an estate somewhere in

Podole).

After the end of the September campaign, there began the

underground phase of the battle. I was very much engaged in

two groups. The first one was the group ``Raclawice''

belonging to the peoples' movement (most from the pre-war

``Siew''). In connection with my work in the co-op movement,

I was invited to prepare the statutes and to help with the

organizational work of

the newly established restaurant in Warsaw, the ``Wymiana,''

on 73 Mokotowska Street. This was only going to be a cover

for the ``Raclawice'' group in its underground resistance

work. After a few months there occurred a desconspiration

(wpadka) of a cell of our group in Lublin (from where we

received printing paper for the underground press). Using

torture, the Germans forced information about our Warsaw

group from the arrested members of that cell, but for now did

nothing to us as yet.

One day a friend of mine, with the same first and last name

besides (we called him Marian Wojciechowski number one, I was

number two) came to me and asked if I could help them in the

following matter. Apparently there was for sale an entire

printing press hidden from the Germans by one of the printer

compositors somewhere in a barn in the countryside. But for

this printing press, the compositor wanted money--which

needed to be organized. I didn't promise anything at first,

because I didn't have the money, but I began some efforts in

that direction. In Rawa Mazowiecka the director of the

agricultural cooperative was my friend, Zygmunt Jedlinski. I

went to him, explained the situation and asked for help. Over

the time interval of several weeks, Zygmunt sent two ladder

wagons loaded with food (all the automobiles were

requisitioned by the Germans, and for the Poles they were

unattainable). The printing press was purchased for the money

received from the sale of this food on the black market. This

was one of the first printing presses in service of the

Polish underground in Warsaw.

The Germans depended very much on the agricultural

cooperatives that supplied food for them on location, as well

as for the residents of the Reich. Because of this, they

wanted to have precise reports and inventories regarding

existing cooperatives. The execution of such reports also

constituted my work. Traveling around to the cooperatives as

an inspector, I had special privileges in buying tickets for

busses and trains, of course only in work-related matters. I

made the most of these trips to contact other organizations.

They were given information, and communiques, meetings and

terms were discussed, and so on.

Springtime 1941 was the date set for the meeting of the

representatives of the organization ``Raclawice.'' This

meeting was to take place in the cooperative restaurant in

Warsaw in the evening. I was going to that meeting from Nowe

Miasto near Pilica, where I was staying with my brother after

recent surgery on my appendix. At departure, my brother asked

me to take along his wife, who was going to visit her family

in Sandomierz and continue further on to Polaniec, and was

going to have to change trains in Warsaw. I agreed readily

and promised to help my sister-in-law to transfer from one

train station to the other. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law

suddenly got sick on the train, so that in Warsaw, instead of

escorting her to the second train station, I took her to my

place on the Aleje Niepodleglosci. I brought over a woman

doctor acquaintance of mine, brought medicine from the

pharmacy and gave it to my sister-in-law. She already felt

significantly better. I announced to her that in the evening

I was going to the meeting. My sister-in-law began to cry,

she didn't know my landlords, they didn't know her, she was

afraid to remain by herself without my care. She finally

convinced me with this lamenting so much, that I resigned

from attending the evening dinner meeting of the underground

organization ``Raclawice'' in the co-op restaurant. I planned

to find out about the details the next day by going there for

breakfast.

At five in the morning I received a phone call from my

colleague Wegierski (he was my friend from the cooperative

and the ``konspiracja''), who asked me if I was coming for

``breakfast.'' I answered yes, because I wasn't at the

``supper'' yesterday, so I should go for ``breakfast.'' And

my friend replied: ``Better don't go there, because last

night there was some poisoning with mushrooms.'' In our

language, ``mushroom poisoning'' meant deconspiration or

betrayal. It turned out that the Gestapo arrived before the

hour designated for the meeting in the restaurant, and

planted all the halls as well as the stairway with its

people, both in uniforms and in civilian clothes. And

afterwards, they would admit all incoming guests, but they

were not let in. In this way, they arrested about 30 people.

From this group of arrested individuals, two women (a cook

and her daughter assisting her) survived; all the remaining

people died from exhaustion at labor or were executed by

shooting--the men in Auschwitz, the women in Ravensbruck. I

would undoubtedly have shared their fate, if not for the fact

that my sister-in-law's illness and strong pleas kept me at

home.

But I survived luckily for some time afterwards, until the

next year, 1942. Because I was informed that at the Gestapo

they are inquiring about Marian Wojciechowski, and I didn't

know which one, then I would change residences often (more

or less every 4-6 months). The last residence I rented in

Warsaw was in Zoliborz, in the housing co-op of

musicians--the landlord of the residence, who also was a

Wojciechowski (but Kazimierz) besides, was a musician.

I continued to travel around the General Government region.

One day, shortly after the arrests at the restaurant, Kazik

Wegierski came to me and announced to me, that he would like

me to meet his sister who had just arrived from Lodz. I went

to visit them, we talked some, and when the family went to

bed, Kazik's sister told me that she has a task for me. She

worked in reconnaissance and needed a place near the border

of the General Government on the train line Lowicz-Zychlin-

Kutno, where couriers crossing the border could stay the

night for some rest and a place to sleep. After a few months,

her brother advised her to ask me for help. I promised that I

would look around. Under the German occupation Warsaw,

Sochaczew and Lowicz still belonged to the General

Government, however the next train station--Zychlin--was

already on the side of the Reich, or territory incorporated

into Germany. As quarters for the woman courier, Lowicz

seemed the best fit to me, especially since I had very good

relations there in the local agricultural-commerce co-op.

That person was a woman courier of the Polish underground

(Kazik's sister from Lodz, Wanda Wegierska). Because of the

assignment of the liaison of the Polish underground, she took

on German citizenship, traveled quite often across the border

into German territory, met there with our intelligence

personnel and brought back from them information, among other

things including the localization of German armament plants.

This information was transmitted from Warsaw to London via

radio, to be utilized for bombing raids by the British air

force. The woman courier (a young girl, about 18-19 years

old) realized at one point in Berlin that she was being

followed, and she fled to hide in the hotel. Sometimes even

very sensible and brave people sometimes do tragically stupid

things. She did just such a stupid thing. Back in the hotel,

she wrote several letters, addressed the envelopes and mailed

them. One of those letters was addressed to me. The Gestapo

intercepted the letters and copied them along with the

addresses. The woman courier was arrested in Berlin only

after three or four months during her third trip. All the

recipients of her letters were also arrested. I had already

organized for her a point of transfer, everything was

prepared, but unfortunately it was too late.

Sometime during the second half of 1940 or maybe at the

beginning of 1941, I believe it was Kazimierz Wegierski

himself who came to my office room with his friend and asked

me to help him as much as I would be able to, after which he

left the room, leaving me alone with his friend. I asked what

was it all about? It was about making contact with people

through whom he would be able to acquire smaller or larger

quantities of every kind of food. In my travels around the

co-ops for inspection, before and even during the

occupation--I knew the remaining stock products of the co-

ops, and I tried to get to know people whom I could trust.

Verifying the percent of so called ``tluczek'' (breakage)

of eggs, ``rozsyp'' (spillage) of flour, cereal or grain, I

knew roughly how much and of what it was possible to take

away without putting people at risk of suspicion by the

German authorities. If there were suspicions about the black

market, that was only just half the problem. People were in

danger of being thrown out of work, being sent to labor in

Germany and so on. However, if there was suspicion that the

food was being handed over to partisans or to Jews--there was

the threat of punishment by death, preceded by torturing all

suspects and their families. We had to help, but always we

had to be cautious. My colleague Wegierski's friend came to

me to the office several times, and if I had them--I always

gave him some contacts in the cooperatives of the Warsaw or

Radom districts. A contact could be the director of the

cooperative, the director of a certain section. the warehouse

keeper, the bookkeeper or also even an ordinary laborer who

was initiated into the underground.

Only after the war, looking at a photograph in the press, I

recognized that friend of my colleague Wegierski. It was

Julian Grobelny, founder of the Council to Assist the Jews,

``Zegota.'' During that time he was buying food and was more

than likely providing it for Jews.

4. arrested by the gestapo

I was arrested in Radom, where I had moved, because in

Warsaw it was ``too tight'' for me, the Gestapo was tripping

over my heels. In Radom, I resided at the local high school

teacher's home (as I recall, his name was Oder). On April 23,

1942, at night, the Gestapo was battering at the door of the

house where I lived. At that time I was not at home, and the

landlord tried to open and escape through the back door, but

they shot him in the leg. His son died from the wounds

received during the shooting. The Gestapo inquired about me

and found out that I was working in the cooperative. The next

day, they went to the office of the Union of Agricultural and

Economic Cooperatives, and without mentioning my name, made a

general survey of the employees. They made accusations that

the office produced fictional work cards for people who in

reality don't work there. Under that pretext, they checked

the entire registered personnel ``from a to z,'' what and

where a given individual did during a given day. By this

method they got to me, and learned at which co-op I was

performing an inspection at that point in time. It was in the

Wloscianska Agricultural-Commerce Cooperative in Piotrkow

Trybunalski. They returned to their headquarters and

telephoned the order to arrest me by the local Gestapo. The

Gestapo came to the commissar of the cooperative during the

dinner hour asking about me. Meanwhile, not expecting

anything, I had just had a secret meeting at the cemetery

and returned at noon to the co-op bureau. There I found a

message that the commissar of the cooperative, a German,

wanted to see me in his office. This was nothing unusual, so

I calmly went to his bureau, and the Gestapo were already

there waiting for me. They checked my personal documents and

informed me that I was under arrest. The protestations of the

German commissar, who needed my help in the work of the

cooperative, did not help. I was arrested; the Radom Gestapo

demanded my immediate transport to Radom. At the moment of

the arrest, I had on my person several ``trefne'' (secret

under ground) documents, that is, such that should not,

under any circumstances, fall into German hands. Handing

over my briefcase to a colleague who was my assistant-

apprentice, I told him quietly to burn whatever could be

damaging to us. Unfortunately, I also had some papers on

me in my clothes; I could not get rid of these without

attracting the attention of the Gestapo. We arrived in

Radom (that was April 24, 1942) around 11 pm at night. And

here, fate was kind to me in a most miraculous way.

Now, about a month earlier I was taking the train from

Radom to Warsaw. At the train station, using my cooperative

inspector's identification card, I could buy a train ticket

without having to wait in line (this was no small matter:

there were barely 20 tickets available for about 200 people

in the queue). At that time, there walked up to me a stranger

in the uniform of a prison guard, asking me to help him to

buy a ticket: he had received a telegram that his sister in

Warsaw is dying and he desperately wanted to visit her (he

was going to be busy at work the next day). I like people and

I like to help them. Therefore, I agreed, and I bought him a

ticket in the next ticket cashier's window to avoid

suspicion. And it so happened, that we were passengers in the

same train car and chatted with each other a bit.

When, in accordance with their received orders the Gestapo

brought me to the Radom prison that night, it was this

``acquaintance'' from the train station who was the guard on

duty!

On the first floor of the prison building there was the

criminal section (for prisoners accused of theft, etc.) and

on the upper floor, I believe either on the second or third

story, there was the political section. After bringing me in,

the Gestapo led me to the guard on duty and told him to sign

a document that I had been delivered. When he signed the

receipt for my person, they left, leaving me in his

responsibility. We were left alone, and we began a discussion

as to what to do next. My eventual escape would risk

reparations against our entire families (his and mine), as

well as against my colleagues from work and from home. I felt

that it was too dangerous not only for my loved ones, but

also for the family of the prison guard. I decided that I do

not have the right to put so many people in danger, and I

decided not to escape. The guard advised me to destroy

anything that was ``trefne'' (secret underground documents)

that I had with me. In the middle of a large hall on the

first floor in which we found ourselves, there stood a huge

stove (so called ``koza'') with a fire burning inside. The

guard lifted the cover of the stove and said: ``Throw it in

here.'' I had with me a notebook with coded names, telephone

numbers and addresses. Without knowing the code, it would

have been difficult to decode them. However, the Gestapo

could come to the conclusion that the information in the

notebook is coded, and with additional beatings maybe get

that necessary information out of me. Without a moment's

hesitation, I took advantage of the ``koza'' and threw in my

notebook along with the rest of the ``trefne'' papers into

the fire.

5. interrogation and torture in radom

And so I fell into the hands of the Gestapo, but with the

exception of what they already knew about me, I did not

provide them with any other indications. Everything I

possessed was ``clean,'' because anything else had been

burned.

During the first few days of my stay at the prison, I

received a package with a large pot of buckwheat cereal. The

Gestapo checked this cereal rather thoroughly, but

fortunately, they did not find the tiny rolled up ball of

paper hidden inside it. It contained only the brief piece of

information, that the Wegierskis had been arrested with their

entire family. I did not receive any additional information:

why, who and how. Kazik Wegierski, a scout instructor (I

believe from the scout troop ``Wigry'') was that colleague

from work and the underground, who had informed me earlier in

Warsaw about the ``mushroom poisoning,'' or ``wpadka''

(deconspiration of a cell of my underground organization). He

was very actively engaged in the Polish underground, and his

sister was that courier who traveled to Germany for

reconnaissance.

I wasn't sure what the Gestapo already knew or what it

didn't know, but just in case, I didn't admit to anything.

For the first interrogation, there arrived at the prison a

special envoy from German intelligence, who spoke Polish

perfectly. As it turned out. he knew Poland, and about two

weeks earlier, that is, right before the outbreak of war, he

had returned to Germany from a ski trip to Zakopane. He

wanted me to tell him everything that I knew about people

acquainted with me, where they work, what they do. Naturally,

when it came to Wegierski, I pretended not to know anything.

At that point, there was not yet any beating or anything of

that sort. The person leading the interrogation said, that's

too bad, that I don't know anything. and left the prison.

About two weeks later at the next interrogation I was beaten

so thoroughly, that after finishing they threw me into the

cell completely disabled.

Normal interrogation took place in this way, that in the

attic of the Gestapo headquarters, they would put handcuff

the prisoner's hands in back of him, tie the handcuffs to a

rope hanging from the ceiling, and pull the rope upwards so

that one would hang above the floor of the attic at the

height of an average chair or table. Then, there would take

place a beating over the entire body, including the head and

legs. A person would be completely covered in blood. Because

I was hanging by my hands with the entire weight of my body,

and sometimes pulled downwards by my legs, I lost complete

use of my fingers and hands already after the second

interrogation. It was possible to prick me in the fingers,

and I would not be able to feel it. I could not bend my arms

at the elbows, so that when eating, for example, a piece of

bread, I had to use a spoon, because I could not reach my

mouth with my hand. They maltreated me horribly. Luckily, my

prison guard acquaintance alerted the persons indicated by me

about my imprisonment. These individuals tried to help me

through the commissar of the co-op union where I worked, and

also through his secretary. As I learned later in the Gross

Rosen camp, where I met the son-in-Law of my Radom landlords,

it was that German woman secretary who suggested that one of

the stapo (he had a high position and loved to play around)

be bribed. Of course, there could in no way be any

agreement about my release from prison, but it was about

sending me to Auschwitz without a death sentence. Normally

in similar incidences the prisoner, after the

interrogations were concluded, was executed by shooting in

the prison or in nearby forests, or sent to Auschwitz with

a death sentence. This sentence was executed by shooting

in the camp after a two- or several-month stay. Such a

sentence was not sent after me. I was transported to

Auschwitz, but all my things were returned to my mother

with the announcement of my death. They didn't want to

release the body, but they sent a message that I am no

longer on this earth.

6. AUSCHWITZ

In the camp I met with a series of events that appeared to

be miraculous, or perhaps accidental coincidences ordained by

the Providence of God. It is difficult for me to say that God

wanted to retain my person, because there were so many who

were so much better and so much more needed. But it all

happened so that I was saved.

I arrived at Auschwitz as a complete human ruin: I could

not bend or move my hands. At the camp apels, when the orders

``caps off'' or ``caps on'' were issued, I grabbed the cap on

my head without feeling it in my fingers. Not obeying the

command risked being beaten or even being killed on the spot.

They took me to Block 11, the block of death. Had they

learned about my state and that I was unable to work, a death

sentence would have been immediate. I was unfit for work, so

there was no reason why I should be kept alive. In such a

state, I was held in the death block for a day or two. I was

hit over the head with a club several times, but after about

a week they sent me, in a group of about 20 prisoners, to the

kitchen for food, for the afternoon soup. This soup--a bit of

water with some thing like nettle in it--and yet hot, was

carried on poles in barrels of various dimensions (25, 50

liters) by two prisoners. They sent a few too many people to

carry the soup, under the assumption that there would be more

barrels. But as it turned out, the barrels were larger and a

few of us didn't have to carry anything. I tried to walk in

the back, so that they would not choose me when changing

carriers, because I knew that I would be unable to carry the

barrel. And spilling the soup, especially a barrel of soup--

that would have been death on the spot for certain, for the

reckless denial of food for many people. And after all, I

could not tell them that I had no feeling in my hands. So I

walked in the back of the group of these carriers down a

street leading to Block 11, and suddenly I saw a man in front

of me, coming closer, also wearing prison garb, but shaped

and well-fitting. We got closer to each other and both of us

stood: ``Marian, is that you?'' and I answered, ``Zdzisiek,

is that you?'' It turned out that this was my friend, with

whom I shared a room in 1937-1938 at the cavalry training

center in Grudziadz for a period of about 9 months. At that

time, after military service, I returned to work in the co-op

movement, and he remained in the army as a candidate or a

career officer. During the occupation, he was rounded up

along with all the remaining men on a train on the Krakow-

Tarnow line and sent to Auschwitz. Because the man was strong

and healthy, he survived the first few months in the camp not

all that badly, and then people like that, if they were able

to do something, were assigned various positions in

maintaining the camp. My friend Zdzisiek Wroblewski was

appointed as the block scribe: he had the responsibility of

keeping the prisoners' register up to date, where and what

each one was doing at each hour. We briefly recounted to each

other our histories; he decided to accompany me. He went with

me to block monitor--it was a German criminal, who beat and

killed people without hesitation; he told him not to do me

any harm, because I was his friend.

In about a week, Zdzisiek arranged to have me transferred

to his block. I don't know how he did that, but at the new

place there were many former colleagues and acquaintances

from various political parties and factions, from various

universities and various cities. They already had formed an

entire underground organization Auschwitz, and everyone

helped each other as much as was possible. Zdzisiek drew me

to him and said that he would make me a ``sztubowy.'' The

``sztubowy'' was responsible for one large camp ward. I told

him that I was not suitable for that function; I saw that a

``sztubowy'' beats people, hitting them with a ladle wherever

it fell. I was not suited for this. Zdzisiek replied,

``Listen, this is the way it is here, that either you will

beat, or you will be beaten.'' But I refused; I wanted to be

in the middle, to not beat and not to be beaten. So I bounced

here and there, working in different commandos in the camp

territory.

A typhus epidemic broke out. Two blocks were reserved for

the sick. The Germans were not at all that concerned about

the prisoners, who were dying in masses from the typhus, but

they were afraid of getting infected themselves. Because the

prisoner worked in many sections, for example, in the

canteens where they had contact with SS-men, they could

infect them. One day, two large trucks arrived, onto which

were loaded all the people in those two ``typhus'' blocks:

the sick, the reconvalescing and the orderlies. They were all

gassed. Less than a week later, I fell ill with typhus

myself. My companions in adversity took me arm in arm and led

me to the receiving hall for the sick, and then they

themselves had to quickly report to work. The doctor in

reception, a young Jew fresh after medical studies (probably

from Hungary) had already been alerted about my coming by my

colleagues or their acquaintances. At that very moment an SS-

man appeared. He was an older man, who went about the camp

and observed the prisoners, writing down the numbers of those

who were working poorly--as well those who were so weak that

they could not work. These numbers were then passed on to the

camp registry office. All those recorded prisoners were then

immediately murdered in the gas chambers or (more frequently)

by injection with phenol. At the moment of the SS-man's

arrival, I had already been examined by the doctor, with a

filled out health card. The SS-man came up and took my card,

and noticed the high fever. Seeing this, and knowing that in

a moment my number would be recorded and passed on for

execution, the doctor quickly reported: ``High fever, for

observation.'' In the Auschwitz camp, on Block 10, there

were performed various types of observations and medical

experiments. German doctors inoculated male and female

prisoners with bacteria of various diseases, performed

research and observations, and then of course they killed

the subjects. In connection with this, the visiting, SS-

man understood that I would be sent there for observation;

he put away his notebook and did not record my number. At

that time, I was already semiconscious.

Next, they sent me to a newly opened ``revier'' for those

who were sick with typhus. I was visited there by my friend

and one of the leaders of the conspiracy--Kazimierz

Wegierski, who was arrested even earlier than I. During his

interrogation, the Gestapo beat him so severely that his

kidneys, liver and other internal organs were damaged. As a

result, this very slender man was so badly swollen that I

could not recognize him. He died the next day, without

betraying anyone to the very end.

From the entire group that was arrested along with him, not

one person broke under cruel interrogation, no one was

betrayed. His sister, Wanda Wegierska, caught by the Germans

and accused of spying, was sentenced to death and executed by

beheading in the prison in Berlin. Working for the Polish

intelligence, she presented herself as a German citizen and

that type of death was administered to her. For her

achievements in the underground resistance movement, she

received the Virtuti Military Cross posthumously after the

war, and was also promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.

She was the woman courier about whom I spoke earlier at the

beginning of my lecture.

After getting well, I was sent back to the block of my

friend Zdzisiek, who started to look for work for me. He

found for me the position of bookkeeper for a German

civilian--an engineer, assigned to supervise the storage of

building and construction materials intended for the camp, as

well as for military objectives. At the Auschwitz camp there

was a main warehouse of that type. At the beginning, we

observed each other: on the third day of such an

acquaintance, the engineer placed a piece of bread with

marmalade on my table, and later we began to talk with each

other. Of course, I did not admit to my underground

connections. Our conversations were held cautiously and only

inside the building. The German warned me that if our

contacts were revealed, then he would become a prisoner like

myself, and I would end up in the crematorium. We worked

together, we exchanged words of greeting, the relationship

between us was arranged on a level plane of not so much as

work colleague or friend, but human being nonetheless.

After about two weeks, my work was changed: at the Sunday

morning apel, I was assigned along with about a hundred other

prisoners to clean the overgrown drainage ditches outside the

camp. Standing on the bottom of the ditch with water up to

the knees, one had to deepen the trench and hand the soil up

to people located higher. The work assigned to me was at the

bottom of the ditch, and any kind of protest would of course

risk a beating. At that time I already had enough feeling in

my hands so that I could hold a shovel, but my fingers were

still not fully functional (moreover, that condition has

persisted till this day). I worked this way for a full day;

it was already the middle of November, the water was very

cold. After returning to the camp I was shaking with the

cold, but the next day I went to do the same work, not saying

anything to the German engineer with whom I had worked

previously. After the second day of working in the ditches. I

got a very high fever during the night, and they took me for

a medical examination. It was pure luck that there were

Polish doctors there, who, even though they had no medicines,

were able to do advice what to do. They diagnosed pneumonia,

pleurisy, water in the side as well as inflammation of the

kidneys. They had no medicinal supplies, because people were

held in the camp to be finished off, completely without any

care as to their medical treatment. And once again, I met

with Divine Providence. In this so-called hospital to which I

was taken, there worked a prisoner--called the block tailor,

who had been arrested along with one of my friends. This

friend, like me, was a recipient of one of the letters from

our woman courier, which had been intercepted by the Gestapo.

The Gestapo came for him at his place of work--a tailor shop

on Wiejska Street right nearby the Sejm. He was arrested

along with other workers. A handy tailor from just that group

by the name of Wladek Dabrowski was presently in Auschwitz.

He performed a series of tailoring tasks for the camp

``dignitaries''--the functionaries and the SS-men. Wladek and

I recognized each other and he helped me in the treatment.

Once again, God showed His mercy. How was I treated? They cut

off a small barrel and installed heating elements in the form

of several light bulbs. They would place me on blankets on

the ground, they would place the so ``armed'' barrel on my

chest, and they would connect the electrical wire conduit to

the electrical contact. After a half hour of such heating, I

was almost unconscious, but the blanket on which I was laying

was completely wet from the water coming out from within my

body. Besides this, the water from my side was extracted with

the help of a syringe. When the SS-man who was writing down

the numbers of the prisoners for execution, because they were

very sick and not fit for work, would draw near us, a well-

organized camp intelligence would warn us ahead of time. Then

I would be pulled out of bed, wrapped in a blanket and placed

on the ground by a wall. That was done with prisoners who had

already died, because at the morning, afternoon and evening

apels every man in every block had to be accounted for. After

the SS-man left, my friend the tailor, along with his

friends, put me back into bed. This would be repeated during

my entire stay at the hospital.

Meanwhile on the block to which I belonged. Zdzisiek had a

fatal fallout. He organized contacts from outside the camp

for the purpose of bringing in medicines for so many sick

prisoners. This was realized in the following way: Some of

the specialists (for example, welders, plumbers. and so on)

needed in the camp were imported as civilian workers from

outside the camp. Zdzisiek would pass on a list of needed

medicines to them, which they would bring to the camp at the

next opportunity. One of those workers was caught with such a

list during inspection, and under torture revealed who had

given it to him. Zdzisiek was arrested immediately along with

the two ``sztubowy'' who were responsible for the wards,

which Zdzisiek frequented most. Despite the tortures, all

three did not betray anyone and did not admit to anything;

they all perished either from starvation, or by phenol

injection. Had it not been for my stay in the hospital,

because I was so closely connected to them, I would have

probably been also taken, tortured and bestially murdered.

I stayed in the hospital until the moment that my fever

dropped, then I had to go back to work. I was released from

the hospital one Sunday and assigned to a different block.

This was the block of the so-called ``Zugange'' (prisoners

newly-arrived to the camp as well as prisoners discharged

from the hospital). The ward of the block I was assigned to

was located on the first floor; I was so exhausted by the

illness that I would walk up the wide stairs on all fours. I

had a card of discharge from the hospital and was assigned to

work the next day. This time the work consisted of arranging

in layers boards, still wet, freshly brought in from the

mill, in tall stacks with some air draft to dry the boards.

To accomplish this, some of the workers had to climb upwards

and pull up heavy boards handed up from below. I barely

managed to drag myself to the place of work; I was assigned

the work at the top, but I lacked the strength to climb up

the stack. Even if I had been able to do so, with the frosty

weather (and it was about the middle of January) I would

undoubtedly have frozen to death or, unable to climb down,

would have been pushed off to the ground, breaking my bones.

I thought to myself then, there is no point in climbing up,

better let them kill me here on the ground and it will be the

end of it. I decided not to go to the top of the stack--this

was a refusal to work, which in the camp meant inevitable

death.

At that time there was in Auschwitz an obercapo of the

Bauhoff (building section), a

German criminal prisoner known as ``Bloody August,'' who was

renowned for his cruelty. Tall, thin, with long hands like an

ape. It was enough for him to smack a prisoner with such a

hand, to make a corpse out of him. I suddenly saw that

``Bloody August'' from a distance of about 10 meters. I

thought that this is the end of me; but he suddenly became

interested in someone else, jumped to the side and reached

him, getting further away from me. However, the other person

accompanying him came up to me. Normally, a prisoner of the

concentration camp when approached by anyone from the camp

administration, was obligated to take off his cap and stand

at attention. I did not do this; it was a matter of complete

indifference to me whether they would kill me or not. The

person approaching me noticed that, came up closer, looked at

me and said in German: ``Marian, is that you?'' I recognized

that it was the German engineer, for whom I had worked as a

bookkeeper. He asked what I was doing here, why I didn't come

to him to work. I answered, that they assigned me to

different work, that I had been in the hospital and then they

told me to report to the present work site. I added, that I

could not perform the work, because I did not have the

strength to do it, therefore because of that they will kill

me. The engineer looked at me and told me to come with him.

He took me to a huge storage place for pipes and other

plumbing parts. Outside the building there were all kinds of

concrete pipes, and inside there were copper and nickel

pipes, as well as all sorts of joints for pipes. The director

of this whole warehouse was a prisoner from Stalowa Wola,

engineer Sledziewski or maybe Sledzinski. The German led me

to him and said that he is leaving me with him as his

responsibility, turned around and left. Sledziewski knew

nothing about me, but he saw that I was barely able to stand

on my feet. He told me to sit down, brought me a piece of

bread, pointed to the hot water for bread soup. And I sat

like that next to him, by the hot stove, not doing anything

for about two or three days.

Under camp conditions this was something completely unheard

of and meant inevitable death. Soon we began to talk with

each other; I told him everything about myself honestly. When

I had rested some, I started to help him more and more. I

worked in this way to approximately the middle of March,

1943, when the transfer of prisoners from Auschwitz to other

camps was begun, because the Auschwitz camp was already

overloaded.

7. GROSS ROSEN--ROGOZNICA

I was sent to the camp in Gross Rosen. The stay in Gross

Rosen began as usual with a quarantine. Even before it was

over, I was sent to Hirshberg (today, Jelenia Gora) to work

on the construction of a factory to make products from wood

fibers. The task of the workers was construction of timbering

for cement walls. I volunteered as a carpenter, trying to

avoid work with sand or cement, where one had to work full

speed running with wheelbarrows filled with sand or cement;

with this, one received a lot of lashes. The work of a

carpenter, requiring precision in matching timber or boards,

was slower. Later, I was even appointed the secretary of the

entire group, because it turned out that the former candidate

for the position was unable to write well, and quickly. So I

held the position of carpenter and secretary until about

November, when they brought us from Hirschberg back to the

mother camp of Gross Rosen. There I was again employed as a

carpenter in the construction of new barracks. One had to

work very fast, because everyday there arrived new transports

of thousands of prisoners pulled from many other camps (from

Majdanek and others). In the construction of the barracks

there were used ready-made slabs which had to be put

together, next the windows were mounted, and also finishing

work was performed. Part of the work was done in the

interiors, where it was hot, and for other types of work one

had to run, and fast at that, outside. Under these conditions

I caught a very severe cold, I was close to pneumonia, I had

trouble with breathing and speaking. My olleagues decided to

help me, taking me to the ``revier'' where I could rest. I

stayed there, and already on the second day there came to my

bed the ``revier'' kapo by the me of Siehsdumich and started

a conversation with me. I told him a bit of this and at about

myself, of course hiding my activity in the underground; he

asked me from here do I know German so well, and learning

about my education he proposed a more responsible job. He

suggested a project employing me in the camp post office, the

parcel section. This change suited me very much and I began

the new work of receiving and delivering parcels.

Some time later there came to Gross Rosen a transport of

prisoners from Majdanek. Right after that, a few weeks later,

this was followed by a large shipment from Majdanek of food

parcels which had been sent to these prisoners by their

families. The director of the post office, SS Unterscharfurer

Layer, decided to send the packages back to the families,

because some of the addresses were no longer current. The

parcels were delivered to the prisoners in accordance with

their prisoner number as well as the number of the block in

which they slept and ate. The first and last names of the

prisoners were not important, it was only those numbers that

mattered. However, after arrival in Gross Rosen from

Majdanek, prisoners were located in a new block and received

a new prisoner number, so that finding the original

addressees among so many thousands of prisoners was unusually

complicated. Therefore, the director of the post office

decided to send back the entire transport of parcels to the

senders. I knew that with the hunger prevailing in the camp,

the return of the food packages constituted a huge loss: in

addition, the families of the prisoners receiving the returns

will be convinced that the addressees were dead. This type of

explanation would not be effective with the director of the

post office, who was an SS-man. Certainly he was not

concerned with the hunger of the prisoners and the pain of

the families. I decided then, to propose other arguments to

him. I told him that returning the packages places an

additional burden on the communication centers, whose main

purpose should be services for the German populace and armed

forces. I cited the slogan placed on German trains: ``Die

Rader rollen fur den Sieg'' (``The wheels are rolling for

victory.'') With this I convinced the German, who asked me

for advice what to do, because it would be difficult to just

distribute the packages at random. I offered to help: if I

received permission from the commandant of the camp and his

deputy (Raportfuhrer Eschner) to spend additional hours

during the week working in the camp chancellery after normal

work hours, then I would attempt to find the addressees of

the parcels, by comparing their former registered numbers

with the currently assigned numbers, as well as searching for

the block in which they were presently residing.

In the camp registry office, there were card index tiles of

the mother camp Gross Rosen and all the subcamps of this

region, all living and dead prisoners with their new numbers,

occupation, and cause of death in case the prisoners were no

longer alive. After receiving the consent of the camp

authorities, I spent the next week working additionally until

about 11 or 12 at night, in search of the owners of the

parcels. The beginning was the hardest, that is, finding the

first few. Next, those who were found helped me to find the

next addressees. And in this way during the week we unloaded

the entire shipment of parcels, additionally earning the

confidence of the director of the post office, SS-man Layer,

and of Raportfurer Eschner with this work well done.

Shortly thereafter, this SS-man's goodwill, earned in this

way, became very useful to me. For one of the prisoners, it

pains me to say--a Pole (he currently resides in Warsaw),

supplemented his food rations by stealing the best foodstuffs

from some of the packages, for example, pieces of sausage.

Noticing this process, of course I did not denounce him, but

I sharply called his attention to it to have him stop doing

this. I even threatened him, that the next time this offense

occurred, he would receive from me a healthy lesson. The

angry prisoner, along with another Polish ``volksdeutch,''

wrote a denunciation about me, that I was taking advantage of

my work at the post office to send letters outside the camp,

even though I was under the so-called ``Postsperre''

(forbidden to write letters, and to receive letters and

packages). I knew nothing about this denunciation. One day,

when I arrived at work, the SS-man, director of the post

office Unterscharfuhrer, called me to his office and told me

from whom and what kind of denunciation was deposed about me.

The main chief of the political section of the camp,

representing the highest authority of the Gestapo in the

camp, came to him to verify this and to eventually take me in

for interrogation. ``My'' SS-man supervisor guaranteed that

it was not true, that I am a very good worker, and that the

denunciation was probably caused by jealousy. In the

conversation with me he added, that he was not asking me if

the accusation is true, but warned me not to do anything like

that, and also not to mention our conversation to anyone.

This SS-man saved my life then, because the denunciation

about me was true. Of course, having correspondence forbidden

to me (camp authorities ordered such types of prohibition

concerning certain dangerous prisoners). I would occasionally

send letters, availing myself of the kindness of my

colleagues, who were able to write once or twice a month to

their loved ones. From time to time (for example, once a

year) they would give up one of their own letters so I could

send one of my own, signed with their name and number (and to

these same numbers there could also come a reply to me from

my family, which they then transmitted to me later).

Luckily, the matter of the denunciation ended on this note

without any consequences. Additionally in my favor there was

also the following fact from the recent work time spent

building the warehouse in Hirschberg. Due to intervention

from the International Red Cross to the highest German

authorities in Berlin, it was demanded that all prisoners

receive the order one Sunday to write a letter home. I

reflected on what I should do. Since I had the ``Postsperre''

(under penalty of death, it was forbidden to send out or

receive any kind of correspondence or parcel, which

effectively made the prisoner ``dead'' to the outside world),

I delayed with writing the letter, in fear of the

consequences. So I went to the commandant of the subcamp

Hirschberg and asked what I should do. After coming to an

agreement with the main camp, he said that the prohibition is

binding and that I am not allowed to write. This proof of

subordination was registered in my records, and also helped

me to survive in face of the denunciation.

A group of prisoners from Majdanek, who received food

parcels thanks to my work, was most grateful to me. Hunger

ruled in the camp; food parcels were unbelievably valuable.

They invited me most warmly for a tasty treat, but I

declined--not accepting even a piece from anyone. At that

time, I worked inside the building and not that hard, so it

wasn't very bad for me; if they wanted to, then they could

share the food products with their friends and colleagues.

Helping my colleagues I saw as my duty, without accepting

even the smallest payment, not even in the form of food.

8. leitmeritz

In January 1945, the German-Russian battles already moved

to the west of Wroclaw. The prisoners were transported by

train and on foot to the west. As I recall, on the 4th or 5th

of February 1945 there occurred the final liquidation of the

concentration camp Gross Rosen. They loaded us on various

uncovered train cars (for example, coal cars). They packed as

many of us as possible into each train car, putting in one or

two SS-men with machine guns. All prisoners were told to

kneel or to sit, and who ever raised himself or stood up was

immediately shot. The train drew near several locations where

there were concentration camps, but they were already

overfilled. On some stops, the bodies of dead prisoners were

removed from the wagons. Finally we reached Flossenburg, and

from there the subcamp Leitmeritz. It was a camp of murderous

labor in digging tunnels into the rock walls, into which were

then placed machines to produce armaments and ammunition. The

mountains protected the production against bombing

explosions. Those prisoners who were still alive in the last

few train cars, where I also found myself, received orders to

take the corpses out of the wagons outside, and lay them out

on the embankments along the railroad tracks. This caused a

considerable delay in entering the camp itself. Walking in

through the gate, I heard someone calling my name. It turned

out that they were the former prisoners of the Majdanek camp,

and later Gross Rosen, whose parcels from their families I

had rescued in Gross Rosen, with that additional night work

in the camp registry office.

After the quarantine, the entire transport of prisoners was

sent to set up camp Leitmeritz, and many of them now occupied

good positions (for example, as functionaries of the camp's

firefighting service). Out of gratitude, they fed me and my

colleagues, assigned me a bed to sleep on (many of the

prisoners slept two or three on one bed or on the ground) and

arranged work for me outside the main camp, under good

conditions, at the construction of a house for the camp

commandant. Because the German criminal prisoners, and

especially those so-called ``kapo,'' had already been

dismissed by then from the camps, and after a short training

were sent to the eastern front, they made me the ``kayo'' of

that group. I chose the following individuals for the group:

(1) Kazimierz Wisniewski, former student of the Szkola

Glowna Handlowa in Warsaw (Warsaw School of Economics), still

sick after typhus.

(2) Jerzy Cesarski, pre-war activist of the PPS (Polska

Partia Socjalistyczna) and an active member of the

underground.

(3) A German (whose name I do not remember) ``kapo'' of the

electricians in the commando ``Steinbruch,'' the exploitation

of the quarries in camp Gross Rosen. He was known for

secretly constructing a radio receiver together with a few

Poles and Germans; they jointly listened to the radio

broadcasts from London and also news about the situation of

battles on the fronts, and passed them on by word of mouth to

their colleagues in the camp, by which they really raised

their hopes for surviving. And that was a great deal. Caught

red-handed listening to this radio, despite terrible beatings

and other tortures, he did not betray anyone, taking the

entire responsibility on himself. The liquidation of camp

Gross Rosen probably saved him from death.

One evening, a group of Polish colleagues at work digging

the tunnel, reported to me--explaining, that the German

supervisor working there, who murdered people at work, had

already promised one Pole that he would finish him off the

next day. This Pole, already sentenced for extermination, was

engineer Dr. Henryk Stankiewicz, docent lecturer of the

Warsaw Politechnical School (as I recall, before the war he

specialized in research on the endurance of building

materials). Because I could not take more than three people

to work, I had to release someone in order to take in

Stankiewicz. I decided to dismiss Jerzy Cesarski, who scolded

me terribly, that I was sacrificing a political activist in

favor of some kind of engineer. Fortunately, both survived

and both returned to Poland. On a marginal note on this

matter, I will only add that as I recall, the 68-year old SS-

man who watched us, of Czech origin, and who knew the Czech,

German, Russian and even the Polish language rather well,

stated to us at the very beginning, that in his presence we

can say whatever we like about Hitler and the Germans, but if

his wife or his daughters arrived, we were not allowed to say

anything, because they were real Germans and would

immediately report this fact to the Gestapo.

To build the house for the commandant of the camp (it was

already under roofing) we had absolutely no materials and no

desire. We spent our whole time looking for wood remnants

nearby, which we exchanged with the local residents for a

beet, a turnip, a few potatoes, or a piece of bread. From

these products we would make a soup, which we shared honestly

with our guard. This commando was kept for me for a long

time, so that I think that it was due to the gratitude shown

me for that time in Gross Rosen. I have great respect and

gratitude for my colleagues.

9. ESCAPE FROM THE TRANSPORT ON FOOT

In the months of March and April 1945, the Russian armies

were pressing to the west. One could hear in the distance

somewhere the bombs bursting and the cannonade of the

artillery. All work outside the barbed wire of the camp was

halted, and also within our commando. Whole columns of

prisoners were prepared to march out one after the other

somewhere to the west. On May 5, 1945, my colleagues

Wisniewski and Stankiewicz, and I were included in such a

column marching on foot. In the camp it was already a public

secret that the prisoners in the transports on foot, who no

longer had the strength to continue further, were finished

off with a rifle shot and left by the roadside to be buried

by the local residents. Long marches, often without food

and water, left numerous victims. Therefore, at the first

occasion during the night, walking through a dense forest,

at a given password all three of us jumped into the

roadside thicket. We waited until the entire column passed

us and then we hid ourselves in even thicker shrubs and

waited for sunrise. In the morning, we turned into the

first forest path crossing, which led us to a Czech

village, where we were greeted very, very hospitably.

Bathed, fed and dressed in clean undergarments, and in

clean albeit old clothes, we finally felt like human

beings. The Czechs informed us that the Russian armies

were already in Prague (or in the vicinity of Prague), and

the American armies were in the area of Pilzno.

While still in the concentration camps, we all knew about

the fate of the Polish officers at Katyn. The German press

made this known, and it was confirmed by the Polish

underground press, with the exception of procommunist

gazettes. We already knew about the mass arrests of Poles on

territories taken over by Russia and of their transports

under terrible conditions to Siberia. We already knew what

would be waiting for us there, if we believed in the

communist prattle and headed east. That's why we had already

planned earlier to head west. The roads were already

obstructed with German deserters and other nationalities in

all directions. Almost everywhere there were organized

kitchens for the fugitives. Without greater obstacles, we

made it to the vicinity of Pilzno. There, on the main road to

Germany, we were stopped by an American patrol. Only those

who had documents proving that they resided in the west were

allowed to go on. Residents of Central and Eastern Europe

were to return to their homes. The three of us went off to

the side to consult on what to do. A young Czech boy was

listening in on our conversation. Apparently he understood

our situation, because he informed us that he could show us

where to cross the border. He returned with us part of the

way towards the village, then turned off to the side through

the field boundary strips, in the direction of some small

shrubs and thickets, and said that beyond those shrubs we

would reach a grove, and beyond that would be Germany. That's

how we made it to the German locality in the area of

Schwandorf, and then further on to the town of Amberg, where

a Polish DP (Displaced Persons) camp was being formed. There

the commandant of the camp, a prisoner of concentration

camps, a major in the AK (Armia Krajowa--Polish Home Army),

Wojcik (Jozef was his first name, I think) greeted us, and in

a pleasant, friendly new-camp atmosphere we slowly regained

our old selves mentally and physically, after the tragic

experiences of the preceding years. The nightmare of German

concentration camps still remained in our subconsciousness

for decades and even now after more than fifty years of

freedom, sometimes I wake up from a terrible dream and I see

the silent pleading eyes of my friends standing in front of

the camp administration office in Gross Rosen, under the

guard of SS-men, I hear the shots into the back of their

skulls; and I sense and I see in the dream the black cloud of

smoke weaving lazily out of the crematorium. Those who

survived this hell did not speak of it for a long time. But

it is necessary to talk about it, so that the memory will not

be obliterated, so that the history of the Polish Holocaust

will not be further falsified.

10. THE POLISH CIVILIAN GUARD

In August and September 1945, the news spread around in

Amberg that:

(1) the Polish DP camp in Amberg would be transferred to a

larger camp in Wildflecken,

(2) the Americans were organizing the Polish Civilian Guard

and Transitional Training Camps.

The commandant of our camp, Major Jozef Wojcik, became the

commandant of one of such camps (Wincer) and asked me to help

in enrolling participants. I traveled around the DP camps,

made speeches and kept sending to Wincer even more candidates

for the Civilian Guard. Finally-late in the autumn of 1945, 1

also went through a period of training as a second

lieutenant, and at the beginning of 1946, our Civilian Guard

company was sent into service at Bad Aibling (near Rosenheim

by Munich). As I recall, there were three of our companies

all-together. We performed our duty by guarding German POWs;

mechanical vehicles and their spare parts; and

stores of weapons, ammunition, etc. In the summer of 1946.

they transferred our company for repeat short training do

Mannheim Kafertal. There I found many young officers and

soldiers whom I knew from my college years, my military

service and during my professional work. I became friends

with the deputy of the leader of the Civilian Guard of the

American Army, Lieutenant-Colonel Wladyslaw Rylko, and he,

knowing that I am a member of the cooperative movement, asked

me for help in organizing co-ops in the Civilian Guard

companies. I began work on preparing the statutes as well as

the accounting forms and cash settlements. However, since

part of the company to which I was assigned was transferred

to Buttelborn near Gross Gerau in the vicinity of Darmstadt,

in order to guard the warehouses of automobile parts and

automotive service columns, I went along with them. After a

few days in Buttelborn, I became aware of two things:

(1) the members of the companies and their families were

still somewhat hungry;

(2) the American army would employ the Civilian Guard only

for as long as they needed us. In case of dismissal, our

soldiers will go looking for work in Germany or through

emigration, without possessing any practical professional

skills.

I resolved to do something to remedy both these cases.

Regarding the suffering due to hunger, I again started up the

company cooperative. making the bookkeeping, the accounting,

and the periodical rights of control by members (the

auditing committee) more efficient. Regarding the

guardsmen's lack of professional skills, I held a meeting

of the soldiers and asked them, who would like to learn

which profession. Next, I applied to the local village

resident Germans individually, owners of trade workshops,

with a request to accept our candidates for training in

the profession. In this way I was able to accommodate all

who wanted to learn. Next, I sat down with my friend, the

leader of the company. Captain Roman Wcislo-Winnicki, to

work out the scheduling of guard service for afternoon or

evening hours, so that those who wanted to learn could go

to work during the day in the trade workshops and learn

the trade skills. With the help of the educational officer

of our center, Captain Jerzy Wilski (my colleague from the

concentration camp Gross Rosen), a scouting instructor

before the war, we founded clubs for soccer, basketball,

volleyball, and an educational club with a handy reference

library and so on. The work came out just fine. It was

time to think about myself, too. Lieutenant-Colonel

Wladyslaw Rylko suggested that I transfer to the center of

civilian guard training in Mannheim Kafertal. I applied to

the University (Wirtschaftshochschule) in Mannheim for

admission to studies and to work on a doctorate in

economics (Wirtschaftswissenschaft). They accepted me and

assigned study subjects and an amount of time for two

semesters, that is, with a possibility of finishing

studies in one year. Unfortunately, just after I passed

the examinations for the first doctoral semester, I was

dismissed from the Civilian Guard of the American army in

the summer of 1947 (Reduction In Force). Because this was

equivalent to depriving me of financial resources for me

and my entire family (wife and daughter), I had to resign

from further studies. Luckily, before the dismissal, and

with a greater cooperation of a special co-op committee, I

was able to work out the statutes, bookkeeping, and plant

the seed of trade courses in very many guard companies, so

that the Civilian Guard of the American Army could rightly

be proud of beautiful attainments in education, culture,

profession, charity and finances--and always in the spirit

of the true independence of Poland.

During the autumn of 1947, I moved with my family to the

Polish DP camp in Hochenfels (Lechow) near Regensburg, where

I was drawn immediately into collaborative work with a circle

of farmers; and I began lectures on economics and accounting

subjects. After a few months, they offered me a position with

the chief Polonian organization in the American-occupied zone

in Germany, called ``Zjednoc zenie Polskie'' (``Polish

Union'') with headquarters in Regensburg--Brunnleite 7. But

that is a completely different topic.

11. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, WHICH WAS NOT PRESENTED AT THE DISCUSSION

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding me this time and for his leadership on this resolution. I also want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), who along with his wife is a survivor of the Holocaust. He is to be commended for his clear and unmistakable and nonambiguous condemnation of these horrific occurrences that occurred 60 years ago and before; and for his leadership today in Congress and around the world on behalf of the plight of Jews, who are still subjected to a gross anti-Semitism all over the world.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps no other single word evokes the horrors of the Holocaust as much as the name Auschwitz, the most notorious death camp in the history of humanity. On January 27, the Government of Poland will mark the liberation of that camp by the Soviet Army some 60 years ago. Leaders from across the globe, including our Vice President Dick Cheney, will rightly and solemnly remember the victims of Auschwitz and the sacrifices of those who fought against Nazism.

This resolution, H. Res. 39, recognizes the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland. We also seek to strengthen the fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism. The Congress of the United States joins those in Poland and elsewhere who are marking this solemn occasion.

I particularly support, Mr. Speaker, this resolution's call for education about what happened during the Holocaust in general and at Auschwitz in particular. At that single camp, an estimated 1.1 million men, women, and children were slaughtered. All in all, more than 60 percent of the pre-World War II Jewish population perished during the Holocaust. Others drawn into the Nazi machinery of death included Poles, Roman and other nationalities, religious leaders and religious minorities, the mentally or physically handicapped individuals, those who were considered inferior by the Nazis. The lives of countless survivors were forever broken.

When Soviet troops entered Auschwitz, they found hundreds of thousands of men's suits, more than 800,000 women's suits, and more than 14,000 pounds of human hair, a silent and grim testimony to the magnitude of the crimes that had been committed there.

Mr. Speaker, throughout the last several years, the Helsinki Commission, which I chaired during the last 2 years, has tried to focus on this terrible rising tide of anti-Semitism that has been occurring throughout Europe, among the OSCE's 55 countries, and really throughout the world. I am very glad that the Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2004, which the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), and I and Senator Voinovich and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin) all worked so hard to enact, now has given us its first installment, including a very comprehensive report, which the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) just read from, and which I would like to make a part of the Record as well.

Members need to read this, Mr. Speaker. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, and it must be countered. A tourniquet must be put on this hate every time it reappears.

I will be happy to yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the distinguished Democrat whip for his very kind remarks; but note that this has been a very strong bipartisan effort, and he has been very much a part of that Parliamentary Assembly.

When we first began to raise this issue, one of the focuses we brought to bear on the Parliamentary Assembly was the importance of Holocaust education. And I would ask every American when they visit Washington to go down to the Holocaust Museum and walk through that museum. Look at the pictures of the people doing the hail to Hitler, the Hail Hitler salute. Seemingly normal, everyday people who, whether they knew it or not, were buying into this extermination campaign that is the most horrific in all of human history.

We would hope that when the Parliamentary Assembly comes to Washington in July that the 220-plus members of Parliaments from each of the countries will spend at least half a day going through the Holocaust Museum to remember so that the past does not become prologue.

I would also point out to my colleagues that my own sense of Holocaust remembrance and education began when I was a young teenager, and a man who used to visit a store right next to my family's sporting goods store who was a survivor himself. I will never forget when he rolled up his sleeve one day and showed us that tattooed mark, the number. He was one of the lucky ones, like our good friend and colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), who survived this terrible time when hell was in session.

So, again, this is another one of those issues that we all are deeply concerned about. There is no division between Democrat or Republican. And again I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) for his leadership on this as well. It has been extraordinary.

Mr. Speaker, I submit herewith the ``Report on Global Anti-Semitism'' referred to earlier.

Report on Global Anti-Semitism

July 1, 2003-December 15, 2004, submitted by the Department

of State to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the

Committee on International Relations in accordance with

Section 4 of PL 108-332, December 30, 2004. Released by the

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 5,

2005.

Executive Summary

I. anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism has plagued the world for centuries. Taken to

its most far-reaching and violent extreme, the Holocaust,

anti-Semitism resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews and

the suffering of countless others. Subtler, less vile forms

of anti-Semitism have disrupted lives, decimated religious

communities, created social and political cleavages, and

complicated relations between countries as well as the work

of international organizations. For an increasingly

interdependent world, anti-Semitism is an intolerable burden.

The increasing frequency and severity of anti-Semitic

incidents since the start of the 21st century, particularly

in Europe, has compelled the international community to focus

on anti-Semitism with renewed vigor. Attacks on individual

Jews and on Jewish properties occurred in the immediate post

World War II period, but decreased over time and were

primarily linked to vandalism and criminal activity. In

recent years, incidents have been more targeted in nature

with perpetrators appearing to have the specific intent to

attack Jews and Judaism. These attacks have disrupted the

sense of safety and well-being of Jewish communities.

The definition of anti-Semitism has been the focus of

innumerable discussions and

studies. While there is no universally accepted definition,

there is a generally clear understanding of what the term

encompasses.

For the purposes of this report, anti-Semitism is

considered to be hatred toward Jews--individually and as a

group--that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or

ethnicity. An important issue is the distinction between

legitimate criticism of policies and practices of the State

of Israel, and commentary that assumes an anti-Semitic

character. The demonization of Israel, or vilification of

Israeli leaders, sometimes through comparisons with Nazi

leaders, and through the use of Nazi symbols to caricature

them, indicates an anti-Semitic bias rather than a valid

criticism of policy concerning a controversial issue.

Global anti-Semitism in recent years has had four main

sources:

Traditional anti-Jewish prejudice that has pervaded Europe

and some countries in other parts of the world for centuries.

This includes ultra-nationalists and others who assert that

the Jewish community controls governments, the media,

international business, and the financial world.

Strong anti-Israel sentiment that crosses the line between

objective criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism.

Anti-Jewish sentiment expressed by some in Europe's growing

Muslim population, based on longstanding antipathy toward

both Israel and Jews, as well as Muslim opposition to

developments in Israel and the occupied territories, and more

recently in Iraq.

Criticiam of both the United States and globalization that

spills over to Israel, and to Jews in general who are

identified with both.

II. harassment, vandalism and physical violence

Europe and Eurasia

Anti-Semitism in Europe increased significantly in recent

years. At the same time it should be noted that many European

countries have comprehensive reporting systems that record

incidents more completely than is possible in other

countries. Because of this significant difference in

reporting systems, it is not possible to make direct

comparisons between countries or geographic regions.

Beginning in 2000, verbal attacks directed against Jews

increased while incidents of vandalism (e.g. graffiti, fire

bombings of Jewish schools, desecration of synagogues and

cemeteries) surged. Physical assaults including beatings,

stabbings and other violence against Jews in Europe increased

markedly, in a number of cases resulting in serious injury

and even death. Also troubling is a bias that spills over

into anti-Semitism in some of the left-of-center press and

among some intellectuals.

The disturbing rise of anti-Semitic intimidation and

incidents is widespread throughout Europe, although with

significant variations in the number of cases and the

accuracy of reporting. European governments in most countries

now view anti-Semitism as a serious problem for their

societies and demonstrate a greater willingness to address

the issue. The Vienna-based European Union Monitoring Center

(EUMC), for 2002 and 2003, identified France, Germany, the

United Kingdom, Belgium, and The Netherlands as EU member

countries with notable increases in incidents. As these

nations keep reliable and comprehensive statistics on anti-

Semitic acts, and are engaged in combating anti-Semitism,

their data was readily available to the EUMC. Governments and

leading public figures condemned the violence, passed new

legislation, and mounted positive law enforcement and

educational efforts.

In Western Europe, traditional far-right groups still

account for a significant proportion of the attacks against

Jews and Jewish properties; disadvantaged and disaffected

Muslim youths increasingly were responsible for most of the

other incidents. This trend appears likely to persist as the

number of Muslims in Europe continues to grow while their

level of education and economic prospects remain limited.

In Eastern Europe, with a much smaller Muslim population,

skinheads and other members of the radical political fringe

were responsible for most anti-Semitic incidents. Anti-

Semitism remained a serious problem in Russia and Belarus,

and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, with most incidents

carried out by ultra-nationalist and other far-right

elements. The stereotype of Jews as manipulators of the

global economy continues to provide fertile ground for anti-

Semitic aggression.

Holocaust and tolerance education as well as teacher

training provide a potential long-term solution to anti-

Semitism; however, the problem is still rapidly outpacing the

solution. At the end of 2003, and continuing into this year,

some Jews, especially in Europe, faced the dilemma either of

hiding their identity or facing harassment and sometimes even

serious bodily injury and death. The heavy psychological toll

in this increasingly difficult environment should not be

overlooked or underestimated.

Middle East

Jews left the countries of the Middle East and North Africa

in large numbers near the mid-point of the last century as

their situation became increasingly precarious. This trend

continues. Today few remain, and few incidents involving the

remaining members of the Jewish community have been reported.

Nonetheless, Syria condoned and, in some cases, even

supported through radio, television programming, news

articles, and other mass media the export of the virulent

domestic anti-Semitism. The official and state-supported

media's anti-Zionist propaganda frequently adopts the

terminology and symbols of the Holocaust to demonize

Israel and its leaders. This rhetoric often crosses the

line separating the legitimate criticism of Israel and its

policies to become anti-Semitic vilification posing as

legitimate political commentary. At the same time,

Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization efforts find

increasingly overt acceptance as sanctioned historical

discourse in a number of Middle Eastern countries.

Other Regions

The problem of anti-Semitism is not only significant in

Europe and in the Middle East, but here are also worrying

expressions of it elsewhere. For example, in Pakistan, a

country without a Jewish community, anti-Semitic sentiment

fanned by anti-Semitic Articles in the press is widespread.

This reflects the more recent phenomenon of anti-Semitism

appearing in the countries where historically or currently

there are few or even no Jews.

Elsewhere, in Australia, the level of intimidation and

attacks against Jews and Jewish property and anti-Zionist and

anti-Semitic rhetoric decreased somewhat over the past year.

This year, New Zealand experienced several desecrations of

Jewish tombstones and other incidents. In the Americas, in

addition to manifestations of anti-Semitism in the United

States, Canada experienced a significant increase in attacks

against Jews and Jewish property. There were notable anti-

Semitic incidents in Argentina and isolated incidents in a

number of other Latin American countries.

III. Media

The proliferation of media outlets (television, radio,

print media and the Internet) has vastly increased the

opportunity for purveyors of anti-Semitic material to spread

their propaganda unhindered. Anti-hater laws provide some

protection, but freedom of expression safeguards in many

western counties limited the preventive measures that

governments could take. Satellite television programming

easily shifts from one provider to another and Internet

offerings cross international borders with few or no

impediments.

In June, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in

Europe (OSCE) organized a separate meeting in Paris dealing

with intolerance on the Internet, and subsequently approved a

decision on ``Promoting Tolerance and Media Freedom on the

Internet.'' The decision is prescriptive in nature and

carefully caveated to avoid conflict with the varied legal

systems within the countries of the OSCE. It calls upon

Participating States to investigate and fully prosecute

criminal threats on violence based on anti-Semitic and other

intolerance on the Internet, as well as to establish programs

to educate children about hate speech and other forms of

bias.

Critics of Israel frequently use anti-Semitic cartoons

depicting anti-Jewish images and caricatures to attack the

State of Israel and its policies, as well as Jewish

communities and other who support Israel. These media attacks

can lack any pretext of balance or even factual basis and

focus on the demonization of Israel. The United States is

frequently included as a target of such attacks, which often

assert that U.S. foreign policy is made in Israel or that

Jews control the media and financial markets in the United

States and the rest of the world. During the 2004 United

States presidential campaign, the Arab press ran numerous

cartoons closely identifying both of the major American

political parties with Israel and with Israeli Prime Minister

Sharon.

``The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'' a text debunked

many years ago as a fraud perpetrated by Czarist intelligence

agents, continued to appear in the Middle East media, not as

a hoax, but as established fact. Government-sponsored

television in Syria ran lengthy serials based on the

Protocols. The representations emphasized blood libel and the

alleged control by the Jewish community of international

finance. The clear purpose of the programs was to incite

hatred of Jews and of Israel. Copies of the Protocols and

other similar anti-Semitic forgeries were readily available

in Middle Eastern countries, former Soviet republics and

elsewhere. Similarly, allegations that Jews were behind

the 9/11 attacks were widely disseminated.

In November 2004, Al-Manar, the Lebanon-based television

network controlled by Hizballah featuring blatantly anti-

Semitic material, obtained a limited 1-year satellite

broadcast license from the French authorities. This was

revoked shortly thereafter due to Al-Manar's continued

transmission of anti-Semitic material. Al-Manar is now off

the air in France. Other Middle East networks with

questionable content, such as Al-Jazeerah and Al-Arrabiya,

maintain their French broadcast licenses.

IV. actions by governments

In Europe and other geographic regions, many governments

became increasingly aware of the threat presented by anti-

Semitism and spoke out against it. Some took effective

measures to combat it with several countries, including

France, Belgium, and Germany, now providing enhanced

protection for members of the Jewish community and Jewish

properties.

For the most part, the police response to anti-Semitic

incidents was uneven. Most law

enforcement officials are not specifically trained to deal

with hate crimes, particularly anti-Semitic hat crimes.

Police sometimes dismissed such crimes as hooliganism or

petty crime, rather than attacks against Jews because of

their ethnicity or religion, or because the assailants

identified the victims with the actions of the State of

Israel.

In countries where anti-Semitism is a serious problem,

specialized training for police and members of the judiciary

remains a pressing need. Many nations still do not have hate

crimes laws that address anti-Semitic and other intolerance-

related crimes. In some instances where such laws already

exist, stronger enforcement is needed.

V. multilateral action

Anti-Semitism is a global problem that requires a

coordinated multinational approach. Thus far, the most

effective vehicle for international cooperation has been the

OSCE, comprised of 55 participating states from Europe,

Eurasia and North America plus Mediterranean and Asian

partners for cooperation. The OSCE organized two

groundbreaking conferences on anti-Semitism--in June 2003, in

Vienna and in April 2004, In Berlin. These were the first

international conferences to focus high-level political

attention solely on the problem of anti-Semitism. The Vienna

Conference identified anti-Semitism as a human rights issue.

OSCE Foreign Ministers gave further high-level political

acknowledgment to the seriousness of anti-Semitism at their

December 2003 meeting in Maastricht. There they took the

formal decision to spotlight the need to combat anti-Semitism

by deciding to task the OSCE's Office of Democratic

Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to serve as a

collection point for hate crimes information. ODIHR is now

working with OSCE member states to collect information on

hate crimes legislation and to promote ``best practices'' in

the areas of law enforcement, combating hate crimes, and

education. ODIHR established a Program on Tolerance and Non-

Discrimination and now has an advisor to deal exclusively

with the issue.

At their December 2004 meeting in Sofia, OSCE Foreign

Ministers welcomed the Chair-in-Office's decision to appoint

three special representatives for tolerance issues, including

a special representative for anti-Semitism, to work with

member states on implementing specific commitments to fight

anti-Semitism. In addition, the Foreign Ministers accepted

the Spanish Government's offer to host a third anti-Semitism

conference in June 2005 in Cordoba.

The United Nations also took important measures in the

fight against anti-Semitism. One was a June 2004 seminar on

anti-Semitism hosted by Secretary General Kofi Annan. Another

measure was a resolution of the United Nations Third

Committee in November 2004, which called for the elimination

of all forms of religious intolerance, explicitly including

anti-Semitism.

Education remains a potentially potent antidote for anti-

Semitism and other forms of intolerance. Following the first

Stockholm Conference in 1998, convoked out of concern for the

decreasing level of knowledge of the Holocaust particularly

among the younger generation, Sweden, the United Kingdom and

the United States decided to address the issue

collaboratively. The Task Force for International Cooperation

on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF)

emerged from this initial effort.

Today the ITF, an informal international organization

operating on the basis of consensus, and without a

bureaucracy, consists of 20 countries. ITF member states

agree to commit themselves to the Declaration of the

Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust and to its

implementation. Current members of the ITF include Argentina,

Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary

Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the

Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland,

United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition four other

countries (Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia) maintain a

liaison relationship with the ITF.

vi. U.S. Government Actions to Monitor and combat anti-semitism

The U.S. Government is committed to monitoring and

combating anti-Semitism throughout the world as an important

human rights and religious freedom issue. As President Bush

said when he signed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act on

October 16, 2004, ``Defending freedom also means disrupting

the evil of anti-Semitism.''

Annually, the U.S. Department of State publishes the

International Religious Freedom Report and the Country

Reports on Human Rights Practices. Both detail incidents and

trends of anti-Semitism worldwide. The State Department's

instructions to U.S. Embassies for the 2004 Country Reports

on Human Rights Practices explicitly required them to

describe acts of violence against Jews and Jewish properties,

as well as actions governments are taking to prevent this

form of bigotry and prejudice.

In multilateral fora, the Department of State called for

recognition of the rise of anti-Semitism and the development

of specific measures to address it. The Department played a

leading role in reaching agreement in the OSCE to hold the

two conferences on combating anti-Semitism noted above in

Section V. Former New York City Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and

Edward Koch led the United States delegations to the

conferences in Vienna and Berlin, respectively. Each brought

a wealth of knowledge and experience in fostering respect for

minorities in multicultural communities. Key NGOs worked

productively with the Department to prepare for these

conferences. In his address to the Berlin Conference,

Secretary Powell said: `` We must not permit anti-Semitism

crimes to be shrugged off as inevitable side effects of

inter-ethnic conflicts. Political disagreements do not

justify physical assaults against Jews in our streets, the

destruction of Jewish schools, or the desecration of

synagogues and cemeteries. There is no justification for

anti-Semitism.'' At the United Nations, the United States has

supported resolutions condemning anti-Semitism both at the

General Assembly and at the UN Commission on Human Rights.

An important lesson of the Holocaust is that bigotry and

intolerance can lead to future atrocities and genocides if

not addressed forcefully by governments and other sectors of

society. The United States is committed to working

bilaterally to promote efforts with other governments to

arrest and roll back the increase in anti-Semitism. President

Bush affirmed that commitment during his visit to Auschwitz-

Birkenau in 2003, stating: ``This site is a sobering reminder

that when we find anti-Semitism, whether it be in Europe, in

America or anywhere else, mankind must come together to fight

such dark impulses.''

U.S. Embassies implement this commitment by speaking out

against anti-Semitic acts and hate crimes. Ambassadors and

other embassy officers work with local Jewish communities to

encourage prompt law enforcement action against hate crimes.

In Turkey, the U.S. Embassy worked closely with the Jewish

community following the November 2003 bombing of the Neve

Shalom Synagogue. In the Middle East, our embassies have

protested to host governments against practices that have

allowed their institutions to promote anti-Semitism, such as

the heavily watched television series Rider Without a Horse

and Diaspora that respectively promoted the canard of the

blood libel, and ``The Protocols of Elders of Zion.'' U.S.

bilateral demarches were effective in specific instances, but

more remains to be done to encourage national leaders to

speak out forcefully against anti-Semitism and in support of

respectful, tolerant societies.

Building on the success achieved to date, the Department of

State is accelerating its efforts with its partners globally

to improve both monitoring and combating anti-Semitism in

three specific areas: education, legislation, and law

enforcement. The Department will continue to promote the

development of Holocaust education curricula and teacher

training programs. A successful program in this area has been

summer teacher training partially funded through U.S.

Embassies in cooperation with the Association of American

Holocaust Organizations (AHO) and the United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum (USHMM). At the October 2004 OSCE Human

Dimension Meeting, the United States and France hosted a

seminar on methodologies for teaching the Holocaust in

multicultural societies. The United States also supports the

work of NGOs in promoting educational programs abroad, in

part based on successful seminars in the United States that

teach respect for individuals and minority groups.

Additionally, the U.S. State Department has supported efforts

to promote tolerance in the Saudi educational system

including by sponsoring the travel of religious educators to

the United States to examine interreligious education.

The roots of anti-Semitism run deep and the United States

does not underestimate the difficulty of reversing the recent

resurgence of this ancient scourge. The legislative and

executive branches, together with NGOs, constitute an

important partnership in continuing the vital effort to find

creative ways to monitor, contain, and finally stop anti-

Semitism.

Madam Speaker, as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I want to acknowledge how fortunate we are in this body to have the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) as one of our Members. His passion on human rights is so welcomed in this body. He has been the champion on these issues for many years. We thank the gentleman for everything he has meant to our sensitivity on human rights issues. The gentleman has seen it firsthand and has helped us understand the need for activism in this body.

I also acknowledge the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for his leadership on human rights issues, and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) who is our leader on the Helsinki Commission, not only on this issue, but on anti-Semitism generally. He has led the effort in the international body to make sure that we pay attention to the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe today.

Last year I had an opportunity to visit Auschwitz and see firsthand where a million people lost their lives in the factory of death. It has an impact on all of us who have seen how inhumane people can be.

Madam Speaker, in 1991 the participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed in Krakow, Poland, to ``strive to preserve and protect these monuments and sites of remembrance, including extermination camps, and the related archives, which are themselves testimonials to their tragic experience in their common past. Such steps need to be taken in order that those experiences may be remembered, may help to teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.''

Auschwitz is just such a site of remembrance. With this resolution, we mourn innocent lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed. We honor

those who fought fascism and helped liberate Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.

This resolution also goes further and speaks to the compelling need for Holocaust education throughout the globe. In the words of the Krakow Document, we must ``teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.'' This chilling rise of anti-Semitism in recent years tells us that more must be done.

Madam Speaker, I can speak a long time on this subject. This resolution calls on all nations and people to strengthen their efforts to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination and anti-Semitism. I am proud that this body is bringing forward this resolution. I commend my colleagues and the leadership of the committee for bringing it forward. I urge all of my colleagues to support the resolution.

Madam Speaker, Yad Vashem exhibits the sketches of Zinovii Tolkatchev, a Soviet soldier who was among those who liberated Majdanek and Auschwitz, under the fitting title, ``Private Tolkatchev at the Gates of Hell.'' For surely that is what he saw and what Auschwitz was. As ranking member of the Helsinki Commission, I visited Auschwitz last year and saw for myself the furnaces that took the lives of more than one million human beings at the camp. These furnaces stoked hatred and intolerance to a degree never before seen in human history.

Today, I rise as a cosponsor and in strong support of this resolution, which seeks to join the voices of this body to all those gathered in Poland and elsewhere in our common remembrance of the liberation of Auschwitz 60 years ago, on January 27, by Soviet Army troops.

I commend Congressman Lantos, the ranking member of the International Relations Committee, for introducing this resolution and for his steadfast leadership in his work against anti-Semitism and for Holocaust education and awareness. I am also deeply heartened that the United Nations General Assembly, at the request of many governments and with the support of Secretary General Kofi Annan, convened a special session on January 24 to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz and other death camps.

Madam Speaker, in 1991, the participating State of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed in Cracow, Poland, to ``strive to preserve and protect those monuments and sites of remembrance, including most notably extermination camps, and the related archives, which are themselves testimonials to their tragic experiences in their common past. Such steps need to be taken in order that those experiences may be remembered, may help to teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.''

Auschwitz is just such a site of remembrance. With this resolution, we mourn innocent lives lost and vibrant communities destroyed. We honor those who fought fascism and helped liberate Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.

This resolution also goes further and speaks to the compelling need for Holocaust education throughout the globe. In the words of the Cracow Document, we must ``teach present and future generations of these events, and thus ensure that they are never repeated.'' The chilling rise of anti-Semitism in recent years tells us that more must be done. This resolution calls on all nations and peoples to strengthen their efforts to fight against racism, intolerance, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, and anti-Semitism.

In the last Congress I was pleased to join with Mr. Lantos and Helsinki Commission Chairman Chris Smith in working to enact the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. Earlier this month the U.S. State Department issued its first-ever global report on anti-Semitism, as mandated by the legislation. We now have a roadmap to build upon in the future, which details both best practices by states as well as areas in which participating States are still falling short of their OSCE commitments.

In April 2004 I attended the Conference on Anti-Semitism of the OSCE in Berlin with Secretary of State Colin Powell. The 55 Participating States of the OSCE adopted a strong action plan, the Berlin Declaration, which lays out specific steps for states to take regarding Holocaust education, data collection and monitoring of hate crimes against Jews, and improved coordination between nongovernmental organizations and European law enforcement agencies.

During our conference, on the evening of April 28, President Johannes Rau of Germany hosted a dinner for the President of the State of Israel Moshe Katsav. President Katsav spoke powerfully about the need to combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout the world. I cannot tell you how powerful it was to listen to the German President and the Israeli President address the issue of anti-Semitism together in Berlin.

Let me just highlight one section of President Katsav's remarks:

``The violence against the Jews in Europe is evidence that anti- Semitism, which we have not known since the Second World War, is on the rise. This trend of the new anti-Semitism is a result of the aggressive propaganda, made possible by modern technologies, globalilzation and abuse of democracy and which creates an infrastructure for developing and increasing anti-Semitism, of a kind we have not known before . . . Many times I have heard voices saying that anti-Semitism is not unique and that it is no different from other kinds of racism. Anti-Semitism should indeed receive special attention. Hatred against the Jews has existed for many generations and it is rooted in many cultures and continents through the world. However, now anti-Semitism has become an instrument for achieving political aims . . . The genocide of the Jews was the result of anti-Semitism and was not caused by a war between countries or a territorial conflict and, therefore, anti-Semitism is a special danger for world Jewry and the whole of Europe.''

I urge others here today to join me in supporting this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First, I want to express my sincere thanks to my friend, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on International Relations, for his steadfast support for this important resolution and for the ideas and values on which it is based and for his efforts to bring it to the floor today. I also want to thank him for his powerful and moving statement.

Mr. Speaker, I spent yesterday at the General Assembly of the United Nations which met in extraordinary session to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of the horror camps of Hitler, and I had the opportunity of meeting with delegates from scores of countries across the globe which came to New York to pay their tribute to innocent victims and the heroic liberators of Nazi death camps.

The special session had the strong support of my friend, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. I should mention that there are 191 members of the United Nations, and for a long time, many of us have made special efforts to have all of them support the calling of this extraordinary session. Over 150 countries have responded in the affirmative, and I will put in the Congressional Record what I can only refer to as a roll call of shame and hatred of those who failed to recognize that 6 million innocent people were put to death by Hitler, and some countries have chosen not to pay honor to their memory and tribute to the heroic liberators of the death camps.

After a moment of silence in memory of the more than 6 million victims of Nazi brutality, delegates from nations around the world paid tribute to our and other allied troops who made ultimate sacrifices to defeat the Nazi regime and to liberate the innocent victims in these death camps. They also honored those who helped the survivors of Nazi brutality to return to civilized life and reaffirmed their commitment that such a nightmare will never again be repeated.

The General Assembly session marked the beginning of this week of solemn observances around the world commemorating the unspeakable tragedy of the Holocaust. The final event will take place the day after tomorrow, January 27, at Auschwitz. The President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, will host an international assembly, including the President of Israel, President of Russia, and a host of other heads of state and government.

Vice President and Mrs. Cheney will lead the United States delegation on this occasion; and I am deeply honored that my wife, Annette, and I, along with Elie Wiesel, the conscience of the Holocaust, will be members of this delegation.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution today and the commemorative activities all this week are not merely remembering the horror of the distant past. Unfortunately, the memories of mankind are all too short and new generations have been born who cannot remember, and unfortunately have not been taught, about these horrors.

A recent survey reported that 63 percent of passersby on a street in Orlando, Florida, had no idea what Auschwitz was. A survey in Britain reported that 45 percent of the respondents had never heard of Auschwitz. We are all too familiar with the recent controversy over Prince Harry appearing at a party wearing a uniform with an arm band emblazoned with the Nazi swastika.

Mr. Speaker, the conditions that led to the Holocaust are still very much with us today. Just 3 weeks ago, as mandated by my legislation adopted by this body last fall, the Department of State submitted to us its first annual ``Report on Global Anti-Semitism.'' Its findings, in the context of the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, were chilling: ``Hatred of Jews is on the increase by hate mongers of all types; anti-Israel sentiment crosses the line between criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism; Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization find increasingly overt acceptance as sanctioned historical discourse in a number of Middle Eastern countries.''

The report also identifies ``the recent phenomenon of anti-Semitism appearing in countries where historically or currently there are no Jews.''

Mr. Speaker, this chilling report and the shocking lack of knowledge about the Holocaust only reaffirm the importance of our resolution today and the importance of the educational events that are taking place in Auschwitz and elsewhere around the globe.

Our resolution calls for governments and teachers to use this occasion to speak to young people about the unspeakable brutality of the Holocaust: the gas chambers and all they imply. Not because we are remembering the past, but because it is vital to our own future that we remember why Auschwitz happened, why the horrors of the Holocaust occurred, and why we must fight bigotry, intolerance, racism, and anti- Semitism in order to make the world safer and better and more civilized for our children and our grandchildren.

Yesterday, I had occasion at the United Nations to point out that genocides are not just matters of events of 60 years ago. In Cambodia, in Rwanda, and as we meet here today in Darfur, there is a genocide going on; and it is long overdue for all governments and all international organizations and all of us as individuals to take responsibility to terminate the ongoing nightmare. I urge all of my colleagues to support my resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to express my deepest admiration to both my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who not only on the Helsinki Commission and in this body but in their own personal activities have provided extraordinary leadership in fighting bigotry and hatred in all its forms.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip and my good friend.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz), a new Member of the House who has already made her mark on this institution.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), the Democratic leader on the Helsinki Commission.

(Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), a courageous fighter for human rights in all realms.

Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) who has been an indefatigable fighter for human rights for all people.

(Mr. OWENS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green) who has fought against discrimination, bigotry and anti-Semitism throughout his entire career.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

This is one of the finest moments of this body. We stand together without any difference as to party or geographic region in our determination that human rights throughout our land and throughout this globe be honored and respected.

I urge all of our colleagues to vote for this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, as we vote today to recognize the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it is worth noting that the number of Holocaust survivors who bore witness to the atrocities at the German camps is dwindling.

One, respected lawyer, Samuel Pisar, wrote an impressive op-ed piece several days ago in the Washington Post. It is hard to imagine witnessing--let alone surviving--the horror. Mr. Pisar movingly describes the last time he saw his mother and sister.

Some, like my father, were more fortunate. A graduate of medical school in Germany, he was able to immigrate to New York in 1935. But he taught our family well: never to forget.

I also want to take this moment to celebrate the life and achievement of the only survivor who serves in Congress--our esteemed colleague from California, Mr. Lantos, who brought this Resolution to the House floor today. I thank him and ask unanimous consent that Samuel Pisar's article be printed in the Congressional Record.

[From the Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2005]

Will We `Never Forget'?

(By Samuel Pisar)

Sixty years ago the Russians liberated Auschwitz, as the

Americans approached Dachau. The Allied advance revealed to a

stunned world the horrors of the greatest catastrophe ever to

befall our civilization. To a survivor of both death

factories, where Hitler's gruesome reality eclipsed Dante's

imaginary inferno, being alive and well so many years later

feels unreal.

We the survivors are now disappearing one by one. Soon

history will speak of Auschwitz at best with the impersonal

voice of researchers and novelists, at worst with the

malevolence of demagogues and falsifiers. This week the last

of us, with a multitude of heads of state and other

dignitaries, are gathering at that cursed site to remind the

world that past can be prologue, that the mountains of human

ashes dispersed there are a warning to humanity of what may

still lie ahead.

The genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo and

Rwanda and the recent massacres of innocents in the United

States, Spain, Israel, Indonesia and so many other

countries have demonstrated our inability to learn from the

blood-soaked past. Auschwitz, the symbol of absolute evil, is

not only about that past, it is about the present and the

future of our newly enflamed world, where a coupling of

murderous ideologues and means of mass destruction can

trigger new catastrophes.

When the ghetto liquidation in Bialystok, Poland, began,

only three members of our family were still alive: my mother,

my little sister and I, age 13. Father had already been

executed by the Gestapo. Mother told me to put on long pants,

hoping I would look more like a man, capable of slave labor.

``And you and Frieda?'' I asked. She didn't answer. She knew

that their fate was sealed. As they were chased, with the

other women, the children, the old and the sick, toward the

waiting cattle cars, I could not take my eyes off them.

Little Freida held my mother with one hand, and with the

other, her favorite doll. They looked at me too, before

disappearing from my life forever.

Their train went directly to Auschwitz-Birkenau, mine to

the extermination camp of Majdanek. Months later, I also

landed in Auschwitz, still hoping naively to find their

trace. When the SS guards, with their dogs and whips,

unsealed my cattle car, many of my comrades were already dead

from hunger, thirst and lack of air. At the central ramp,

surrounded by electrically charged barbed wire, we were

ordered to strip naked and file past the infamous Dr. Josef

Mengele. The ``angel of death'' performed on us his ritual

``selection''--those who were to die immediately to the

right, those destined to live a little longer and undergo

other atrocious medical experiments, to the left.

In the background there was music. At the main gate, with

its sinister slogan ``Work Brings Freedom,'' sat, dressed in

striped prison rags like mine, one of the most remarkable

orchestras ever assembled. It was made up of virtuosos from

Warsaw and Paris, Kiev and Amsterdam, Rome and Budapest. To

accompany these selections, hangings and shootings while the

gas chambers and crematoria belched smoke and fire, these

gentle musicians were forced to play Bach, Schubert and

Mozart, interspersed with marches to the glory of the Fuhrer.

In the summer of 1944, the Third Reich was on the verge of

collapse, yet Berlin's most urgent priority was to accelerate

the ``final solution.'' The death toll in the gas chambers on

D-Day, as on any other day, far surpassed the enormous Allied

losses suffered on the beaches of Normandy.

My labor commando was assigned to remove garbage from a

ramp near the crematoria. From there I observed the peak of

human extermination and heard the blood-curdling cries of

innocents as they were herded into the gas chambers. Once the

doors were locked, they had only three minutes to live, yet

they found enough strength to dig their fingernails into the

walls and scratch in the words ``Never Forget.''

Have we already forgotten?

I also witnessed an extraordinary act of heroism. The

Sonderkommando--inmates coerced to dispose of bodies--

attacked the SS guards, threw them into the furnaces, set

fire to buildings and excaped. They were rapidly captured and

executed, but their courage boosted our morale.

As the Russians advanced, those of us still able to work

were evacuated deep into Germany. My misery continued at

Dachau. During a final death march, while our column was

being strafed by Allied plans that mistook us for Wehrmacht

troops, I escaped with a few others. An armored battalion of

GIs brought me life and freedom. I had just turned 16--a

skeletal ``subhuman'' with shaved head and sunken eyes who

had been trying so long to hold on to a flicker of hope.

``God bless America,'' I shouted uncontrollably.

In the autumn of their lives, the survivors of Auschwitz

feel a visceral need to transmit what we have endured, to

warn younger generations that today's intolerance, fanaticism

and hatred can destroy their world as they once destroyed

ours, that powerful alert systems must be built not only

against the fury of nature--a tsunami or storm or eruption--

but above all against the folly of man. Because we know from

bitter experience that the human animal is capable of the

worst, as well as the best--of madness as of genius--and that

the unthinkable remains possible.

In the wake of so many recent tragedies, a wave of

compassion and solidarity for the victims, a fragile yearning

for peace, democracy and liberty, seem to be spreading around

the plant. It is far too early to evaluate their potential.

Mankind, divided and confused, still hesitates, vacillates

like a sleepwalker on the edge of an abyss. But the

irrevocable has not yet happened; our chances are still

intact. Pray that we learn how to seize them.