As the Prince of Wales said in Westminster today (Jan. 27), the Holocaust was an “evil unique in history,” and one we should never forget.
January 27, 2015 marks the 70-year anniversary of the liberation of the biggest and one of the most known of the Nazi Concentration Camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, a date that also represents International Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Holocaust is not the only mass genocide within history, but it occurred within modern Europe; Germany in particular was a supposedly enlightened country. The scale of this atrocity is incomprehensible; 1.1 million prisoners died in Auschwitz alone, 90% of which were Jewish.
Almost all of the living Holocaust survivors were just children or teenagers when they were liberated. They had been separated from family and friends whom they never got to see again, and honestly believed they would not make it out alive.
One of the survivors from Auschwitz, Arek Hersh, who was only fourteen when he arrived at the camp, spoke to The Telegraph about his experience that still haunts him to this day.
“I shudder every time I think about this place. I can’t control the fear. Every time I come here I feel fearful.”
He later added:
“When I think of all the terrible things that happened to us: how we lived, how we died. It’s a reminder of what men can do to each other.”
David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announced earlier today that the government is funding £50 million towards a new Holocaust Memorial in London in order to maintain awareness of “the darkest hour of human history.”
Our thoughts are with those who survived, and to those 11 million prisoners who did not make it to liberation.
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