60th anniversary of liberating KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, 27th January 2005
Address at the state ceremony dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz Birkenau by the President of the Republic of Poland

ALEKSANDER KWASNIEWSKI

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Where we are now gathered, no words can render the entire terrifying truth about the horrors committed in this place. But we must speak, remember, cry out: this was hell on Earth. Here, humiliation, fear, pain, suffering, death - they were the everyday. The monstrosity of this crime is overwhelming. Nazi "death factories" were planned in cold blood. Disciplined butchers fervently did their job to make sure, that the crematory stacks kept spilling out smoke. We still cannot forget that "people brought this fate upon people". We can never accept this!

This place presents in its terrible entirety what Nazism really was. A mere two months passed since Hitler came to power, when the first prisoners were thrown into the camp of Dachau. Shortly after the aggression against Poland, the Konzentrationslager Auschwitz was established at Himmler's orders. Already in June 1940 was the first transport of Polish political prisoners routed here. In the first year of Auschwitz's existence 17 thousand Poles suffered behind the barbed wire of this camp. Even more came to be imprisoned later into the Occupation. They included such eminent persons as Tadeusz Borowski, Bronisław Czech, Xawery Dunikowski, Józef Cyrankiewicz, Władysław Bartoszewski, Tadeusz Hołuj, Stefan Jaracz, Józef Szajna or August Kowalczyk.

As of 1941 the horror of Auschwitz became the fate of many nationalities. Transports starting arriving from all over occupied Europe. People from various countries, languages and religions gathered in a community of suffering, marked by the striped camp rags. Most of these people met their death here. Auschwitz is an enormous European cemetery, holding the ashes of one and a half million people of 25 nationalities.

Particularly terrifying was the fate of the Jews. Auschwitz-Birkenau is a symbol of the Shoah, genocide committed by the Nazis upon the Jewish people. The largest death camp was exactly here - build specially to kill. On a mass scale, industrialised, with precision. Together with other death factories - in Bełżec, in Chełmno on the Ner, in Majdanek, in Sobibór and Treblinka - it continues to give testimony to the enormity of this crime. During the War the Nazis murdered six million Jews, half of whom died in the camps. Total extermination was also to be the fate of the Romany community. It is indeed a nightmarishly horrific chapter in the history of Europe.

Our hearts weeping, full of grief, today we pay tribute to all those murdered in Auschwitz, to all victims of the Nazi crime. For us here in Poland this is a place of special reflection. We reflect on the martyrdom but also the steadfastness of our nation, which grappled with the invaders from the first day of the War until the last. We reflect on the suffering of fellow men. On the special bond connecting us with the Jewish people.

Brought by the Nazis, the Shoah was the end of the world, which Poles and Jews had built on this land in cohabitation. The Jewish community had lived here for eight hundred years, finding Poland to be a country of freedom and tolerance. Many generations of Polish Jews delivered a magnificent spiritual, cultural, economic heritage - and contributed greatly to our common history, at the same time drawing upon Polish influence and experience. This will be illustrated by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, arising now in Warsaw.

This day is a good opportunity to recall those great of spirit, the Polish heroes who demonstrated courage and solidarity with the Jews. To recall the members of the "Żegota" Council for Aid to the Jews; to mention Irena Sendlerowa, who save the lives of thousands of Jewish children; Jan Karski, who was the first to tell the Allies about the Shoah; or Henryk Sławik, known as the Polish Wallenberg, whose efforts saved over ten thousand Jews from the Nazi death machine.
Ladies and Gentlemen!

The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was liberated on 27 January 1945 by Soviet troops. Some of the liberators are among us here today - those who saved the prisoners and uncovered the Auschwitz horror to the World. I had the honour today to present them with distinguished Polish decorations. With profound respect for the soldierly sacrifice of blood, Poland worships all the combatants, all who died a heroic death marching in the ranks of the Red Army to liberate our homeland from Nazi occupation.

We remember the enormous contribution of the Russians and other peoples of the Soviet Union to the victory over Nazism. We remember that it was on the eastern front that the outcome of World War II was determined to an enormous extent; that it was the Red Army, which seized Berlin. Twenty million killed - soldiers in action and civilians murdered by the Nazis - were a terrible price, which the nations of the Soviet Union paid for this historic victory. Together we bow our heads to their sacrifice.

We remember those, who survived the horror of the camp and today continue to live with the effects of their suffering, the diseases and often poverty and loneliness. It was exactly for them, with the motto "You will not be alone!" that the Polish-German "Reconciliation" Foundation and the victims' associations established the Polish Union of Victims of Nazism last year. I am confident that the work of this new organisation will well serve the humanitarian, social and medical needs of the living victims of Nazism.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is a warning. This place is the terrible truth about the abysmal fall of humanity. We must find the strength to face up to this truth. We must always remember about it. It is our duty to pass this horrifying memento to future generations. Exactly because of this the despicable attempts to tamper with history, the so-called "Auschwitz Lie", are being condemned and punished in all civilised countries. We must do everything for the monstrosity symbolised by Auschwitz-Birkenau never to happen again in the future.

Among us today are witnesses of events from 60 years ago. When I behold you I experience profound emotion, wonder and respect. I know that it is you, the guardians of this painful memory, like no one else know the value and need of peace, reconciliation, forgiving. And it is from you that the greatest learning can come to the next generations - young people building a united Europe and a better future for this planet.

May today, from this place our common cry sound, the cry for a world without hatred and contempt, without racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, for a world, in which the word "human" will always ring with pride.