‘Auschwitz. Voices of the living’ – a special supplement to Tygodnik Powszechny for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp
So much has been already told about Auschwitz. This is why Tygodnik Powszechny (Polish weekly magazine) decided to tell the story of Auschwitz using voices of those who are still alive, the last witnesses of Jewish, Polish and Roma origins:
Mordechaj Ciechanower (91 years old), who as a prisoner in Auschwitz-Birkenau worked as a roofer, and who participated in the camp opposition, tells the story as if it had happened yesterday: “From up there, from the roof, one could see much more”.
For Irena Jankowska (91 years old) the strongest nightmare after liberation was Josef Mengele, who did his pseudo medical experiments on her.
Marceli Godlewski (94 years old) was one of 802 prisoners of Auschwitz who tried to escape and one of the few who were successful.
Alfreda Markowska is Romani and as such, she was denied the right to live by the Nazis. But she survived, she is 90 years old now, and she managed to save a few dozens of Romani, Jewish and Polish children.
Zofia Posmysz (91) says “To survive, you had to be lucky to meet the good people”. And she was lucky – she met among others one good German woman, member of SS.
When the death marches happened, Helena Machler was 9 years old. She was looking at what was happening from her house in a village near the death camp.
The supplement includes also an article by professor Jan Rydel (English version available here). ENRS is one of the co-publishers of this supplement.