DW reports on Auschwitz liberation 50th anniversary in 1995

DW (English)

DW dug through the archives to find our report on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz back in 1995. Find out what Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Poland's then-president, Lech Walesa, said at the commemoration ceremony.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to the Journal from Deutsche Welle TV. I'm Christiane Feist. To this day, even

00:1550 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, anguish and sorrow prevail. To

00:21defy helplessness, to confront the past in order to learn for the future, that was what

00:27German President Roman Herzog and others hoped to do on Friday, the second day of the commemorative

00:32ceremonies in Auschwitz. In the Book of Remembrance, Herzog wrote, here the dead open the eyes

00:38of the living. In front of the gate with the cynical inscription, work will set you free,

00:44Nobel laureates and politicians from 30 countries commemorated the victims. Then they walked

00:51to the so-called wall of death and laid down a wreath where the SS executed thousands.

01:01We've just taken a symbolic walk along the path that reflects the suffering of many peoples,

01:07especially the Jewish people. The speech published prior to the ceremony had not contained this

01:15sentence. Muenzer must have added it at the last minute after coming under heavy criticism

01:20on Thursday. On the first day of the commemorative ceremony, he made no reference to Jewish suffering

01:26or the Holocaust. Survivors of the Holocaust had already gathered before the official ceremony

01:33in the former death camp Birkenau began. Some wore striped scarves reminiscent of prisoners'

01:40clothing. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Eli Wiesel expressed what was on everyone's mind. I speak

01:48to you as a man who 50 years and 7 days ago did not have a name, did not have any hope,

01:57did not have a future and existed only through a number, number A-70-7-13. Around 5000 people

02:12listened as he hinted at the ongoing dispute with Muenzer. Not all the victims were Jews,

02:18but all the Jews were victims, he said. More than a million people were systematically killed here.

02:25At the commemorative ceremony, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim leaders

02:30prayed for them. An appeal to the world by the Nobel Peace Prize laureates followed. It was

02:36read by Václav Bartoszewski, who also suffered in Auschwitz. The legacy of the victims compels

02:43us to work to build a world free of xenophobia and hatred. The other appeals on this day also

02:50made clear that the Auschwitz experience must be a warning to us all, especially in view of

02:55resurging nationalist sentiment in many countries around the world.

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