Distinguish ladies and gentlemen, i would like to welcome you to this commemoration. Former inmates of the campaign holocaust survivors. Mayor welcome your highness, is president s, prime ministers, and all the heads of parliament and heads of state delegations. May i welcome representatives of the polish parliament and parliamentarians from europe and the world. May i welcome members of governments from poland, europe and the world. I welcome representatives of the diplomatic corps for their support pillars of, memories Action Foundation and fund. I welcome representatives from the churches and religious communities and the communities of the Jewish Society and also the representatives. Representative of regional and foreign governments. Representatives of institutions and organizations and all the people whove arrived at this commemoration. May i requests the address of the president of poland. [applause] honorable survivors, witnesses of the holocaust. Royal highnesses, your excellencies, president s, prime ministers, guests, excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen , the train has just arrived, people starting to get out of their wagons walked towards the grove. When i got up in the morning people were walking, women, men, and children. I went out at night. I could see lamps shining over the barbed wire in the darkness. Only the darkness but i could clearly hear, people walking along and with the fire the that lit up the sky. With the fire a human cry rose. For days and nights, people continued walking. The wagons were coming up and people were walking on. This is how auschwitz was described in the summer of 1944 by the polish inmates of the camp. People walking, led, driven to mass death. We in poland know the truth about what was happening here. Our compatriots had numbers tattooed on their bodies. By germans. It has been 75 years since the end of the worlds monstrous and criminal horrendous crime that was unfolding in this place for nearly five years. It has been three generations since that day, the 27th of january, 1945. When a few thousand prisoners lived to see deliberation by soldiers of the red army. A few thousand prisoners live to see liberation by soldiers of the red army. Here with us today are the last living survivors. People who endured auschwitz. The last of those who saw the holocaust with their own eyes, who experienced the fate of the jewish nation. As referred to in the psalm 44. We are killed all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered,. We have come here together, members of 61 delegations from all over the world to commemorate the International Holocaust remembrance day. We are standing in front of the gate leading to the camp that claimed the lives of the largest number of victims and that has become the symbol of the shoa. We pay tribute to all the 6 million jews murdered in this and the other camps, in the ghettos, in places of martyrdom, in the streets of cities and small towns. We stand here before you honorable survivors, to assume anew in this is an obligation we take thinking of those who perished. Of you who have survived into the future generation as well. The genocide perpetrated here by the functionaries of the nazi third reich claimed more than 1,300,000 human lives. Among them, the roma, soviet prisoners of war, but first and foremost, jews, whom over 1,100,000 were slain here. We are speaking about numbers, but these numbers represent people, their life stories and suffering. We are speaking about numbers, although we will certainly never get to know the exact. Figures. Yet we are speaking about numbers as we are in the factory of death, numbers make us realize the industrial nature of the crime perpetrated here. The holocaust. Of which auschwitz is the main locus in the main symbol. Here, the hatred, assumed the form of a mass and organized, methodical murder. At no other time and no other place was extermination carried out in a similar manner. Jews from poland, hungary, france, the netherlands, greece, and from other occupied countries all over europe were brought here in cattle cars, they underwent selection and were deprived of all their belongings. They were killed in the gas chambers and burned in the ovens of the crematorium. All of it took but a few hours, minutes. For years, the factory of death operated at full capacity. Smoke was rising from the chimneys. The transports were rolling. People walked and walked in the thousands. To meet their death. It is hard to encompass the toll today. The magnitude of a crime perpetrated in this place, is terrifying, but we must not look away from it. And we must never forget it. When the front was approaching to put an end to the crime, the perpetrators attempted to obliterate its traces. They would destroy the buildings and documents the genocide having slain millions, they also wanted to wipe out the memory of them. However, their attempts failed. Witnesses were saved, you honorable survivors are the last ones. This place has been preserved, the tangible evidence and the symbol of the holocaust. Hence, we stand here today on the premises of the former chairman german auschwitz camp, we stand altogether and bow our heads before the suffering of the victims of the most horrendous crime in history. And before the survivors, in the presence of the last witnesses, we do assume an obligation for the future. In the name of the republic of poland, who was the first target of nazi germanys aggression, whose territory was occupied and its nation was subjected to terror, who established the largest european underground Resistance Movement against the third reich; whose soldiers fought the east fought against germans on all the fronts of the Second World War from the first to the last day of the war. Six million citizens died at the hands of nazis. Including three million jews. And to make an honest effort to preserve this place, the premises of the auschwitz camp as well as all the other places the former german camps located in our territory. I have the privilege and honor on behalf of the republic of poland to renew the obligation that we proposed back then when the holocaust was being carried out, when our forefathers came to the aid of the murdered jews, putting their own lives at risk. Who were the first ones to reveal to the world the truth about the shoah and demanded the world respond. The obligation to which we consistently adhered also for the sake of the memory of our heroic compatriots. On behalf of the republic of poland, it is my privilege to always nurture the memory and guard the truth about what happened here. I wish to invite the distinguished guests here today, representatives of foreign states and nations as well as International Institutions and all people of goodwill from across the world to participate in this endeavor, let it be the joint commitment undertaken before the last survivors and witnesses to keep in the message of the future the warning for the whole of mankind that stem from this place. Distorting the history of the Second World War, denying the crimes of genocide and the holocaust. As well as an instrumental use of auschwitz to attain any given goal is tantamount to desecration the memory of the victims whose ashes are scattered here. The truth about the holocaust must not die. The memory of auschwitz must last so that such extermination is never repeated again. Thank you honorable survivors for your testimonies here today. May the memory of all the victims of auschwitz live eternally. May the memory of the victims of the holocaust live eternally. And now, let us listen to the witnesses. We asked a former inmate. To take the floor welcome. Let me say shalom from israel. It is difficult for me to hide my feelings when standing here in front of you, dreaming that im here with you 75 years on. After what happened here, this great suffering took place here. My number was 45554. In german is an inmate under protection. Here then, this word did not mean protection. Care for another human being did not belong there. Human dignity did not belong there either. Quite the opposite. Even if you open a dictionary, you will not find a phrase that would describe how Human Dignity was trampled. So, this word, inmate. Under protection. What was it for . So much despise in there, in this devilish world where Human Dignity was treated as if it were dirt, there was no way of finding shelter anywhere. All those people would be surprised but i did not have a striped uniform because there were too few. I was given a russian soldier uniform. My legs were wrapped in a prayer shawl. That shawl that is used by jews. And i had those dutch wooden shoes. Mind you they were uneven. , what else did they do to me . First, they tattooed a number on my arm. And it is just as visible today as it was back then. It was very well tattooed indeed. So, i couldnt recognize myself. Those blocks, they had windows very high. I raised my hands and that is when i recognized myself to be myself. The worst thing that i went through at the very beginning, well, it is hard to say what was more painful to me. Whether it was the process of tattooing a number on my arm or Something Else. I believe that what was the most hurtful for me was the loss of hair because the hair gave me a sense of belonging to womanhood. This hair was my own. When this criminal hand touched my hair, this crown of mine was taken away from me and i was turned into this pitiful, sad creature. My hand touched my naked scalp. And i could see my face and i could not recognize myself. Is it really me . Where is my crown . Then in the mirror, i recognized myself. Or rather, it was not a mirror. It was a glass window and it was really me. Who could think back then, they would be used as a resource for mattresses. However, what they were after was depriving me of my own human face. And hair would grow back. As nature commanded. And there was this dream within my heart that was still alive. Maybe tomorrow will come, one day. And tomorrow did come indeed. Memories remain though. And let me tell you Something Else. I worked for commanders. I would collect herbs that were somewhat poisonous and my hands would bleed 12 hours per day. As we sit here, we remember we would be woken up at 4 00 a. M. I was collecting metal and this metal was used to make soup. This woman out there, everyone knows who she was, what this word means, she was really cruel. She had a dog. She had a stick and she would beat us up. What she wanted was this basket of grass to be not only full but also packed. And i spent many months with this commander. Then there was the second one there briefly. My cousin, she was a doctors wife. And she worked. Hospitals . That is just a name. I caught all the diseases you could think of and i still remember the names of all those diseases. And there was this itching all the time. I was the first to be sent to dr. Mengele. When he inspected us, we had to be stood in rows. I said i would not go. I hid under a bed, under the cover. And somehow, i saved myself this way. And there was another commander later. I had to tell lies and i learned then there are two types. The first type of the first type lice on your head and the second lives on your clothes. I would kill lice with my fingers. This would be the first job i would do in the morning. I had been through terrible diseases. The next commander, it was the inmates themselves who came up with his name. So i worked there. I am sure there are people here from hungary. I would hold hungarian clothes in my hands. First, i would cry. But then, i had to get used to that because that was to become my job. There were huge piles of clothes from different corners of the world. And there i saw a photograph of my teachers. In 1944, the ghetto was liquidated. This was my meeting, so how do you live in such a place . Jewish schools had been closed down, so i decided i had to learn something. There were all those languages that surrounded me. Maybe more people who work here would know better. So i would hear all of those languages around me and thought i need to learn something. I would learn a language. I found this belgian lady, and she became my teacher. I had no pencil or paper. I had nothing to help me. And on i went with my learning so when i left, i spoke fluent french. There was another thing i learned here. Songs and melodies that were created by inmates. This was one of them. And it became our prayer. It is a very long poem. I am not going to recite it here. I still know it by heart. I kept it all those years ago. This poem was known to me in the camp. It became our prayer here. The description of our suffering was an expression of each one of us. However, not every prisoner was able to describe the painful reality in such a matter. The main source of strength was the crazy lust of revenge for so much agony and so many complaints. The words of revolt wandered from mouth to mouth. The thought of revenge became the source of strength allowing to endure the long days and nights of inhumane suffering. I continued learning all the time. What helped me to survive was i decided to do something for myself. I decided to choose what i want rather than following orders. However, i did not get to be liberated on the 27th. Because we could hear the russian army approaching, their cannons firing. Basically, i did not get to experience this liberation, i was driven out in late march. Could i have some water please . Just a little bit, not much. So, that is what i thought back then. So it was a dream of freedom and the thought of revenge for all the suffering because we had to wait in the queue for death. And various countries in the world did nothing. And i still have this feeling today, where was everybody . Where was the world who could see that, who could hear that and yet did nothing to save all those thousands . What now . From the bottom of my heart, rather than reading from a piece of paper, i will say it. I was meant to liquidate birkenau. What was my last job . Mind you, canada was the name that was under commando, inmates came up with it. Canada is a rich country, isnt it . And in canada, there were all these items brought with people. Inmates from all these countries. This is where they were collected. And i saw it all. Now, the upside to working in canada was that you could eat things. We would eat whatever was brought by people. Pick because people coming here have been told that they were being taken to work. They were asked to take some food with them. This food was bring brought to canada, and we were sickly and then pick. We would use that. And you read such things . Back, than anything was possible. There was one more thing that helped us to live in this health, friendship. We could find a group of people who would help one another, sure. The holocaust is not only about the terrible things. What about the righteousness of the nations who helped . There are many other subjects that can be taught to children. I would like the subject to be introduced at an earlier stage. Why so . Various countries where children are 15 years old, it is already too late. Because at this point, theyre undergoing sudden physiological changes and what they think about is themselves and their position in a social group. So a question. Is it necessary to teach that subject . Is it possible . I have an answer to those questions. Yes. It is very much necessary and it is by all means possible. Why is it truly necessary . We live in the world of the media. And we have those phones, iphones, whatever its name is. People play with those objects. Toddlers. So children grow up playing with those iphones and they know more than we would like them to know. For that reason, this subject needs to be taught as early as possible. In israel, it is different because we have those sounds. Children ask why they hear those sounds. However, in other countries they, dont have that. Im sure there are teachers here. Im addressing the teachers at this point. First, you need to learn what children know and what is the source of their knowledge. You need to learn what they would like to know. I have been to various places. I have been to argentina, canada. I have been to america many times and i spent three years in england. I wanted to learn so the first thing i did was i learned. I picked up hebrew very fast. I went to this teaching college. Also, i worked as a kindergarten teacher. Children would approach me about why i had this thing written. For 40 years, ive been looking for an answer. We have books in polish that have been translated from hebrew. Well for the most part. , they are meant to be used in schools. What else should i say . Maybe that i would like to cry because only with tears i can tell you about this past. I can see so many people here, you are a source of comfort to us. I hope you will all try to preserve the memory of this place and other sites where people, innocent people, died, people from various nations. I hope you will make sure to bear this responsibility so that this terrible thing will never happen again. Thank you so very much. Ladies and gentlemen, may i ask a former auschwitz inmate, elsa baker, to take the floor. Thank you. It is a great privilege just to stand here today at this great event, this historic event. When so many people having just listened to that ladys speech, that really upset me, despite the fact that i was also in auschwitz as an eightyearold girl, but i would like to say it is an honor for me to be here among so many people who have suffered so greatly, perhaps even much more so than i. I it is i dont know. Im upset. You probably can feel that, that i am very upset listening to that lady there. You know, i would like to thank the polish people for having preserved this former camp here and made it into such a worldrenowned memorial, holocaust memorial, which it is today and where people can come, especially people who are in that category i was in auschwitz for. Now, i have lived in england for nearly 60 years. And i know not many people know that roma greatly suffered under the nazis, similar to the suffering of jewish people, and now, some will continue talking now because im blind. I cannot look at notes. What i say comes from the heart. And she will continue now with my speech. She will read it. But i have written it. I have written it, yes. Mrs. Baker has asked me to deliver the rest of her speech because she is severely sight impaired and she cannot read it herself. In 1944, when i was just an eightyearold girl, i was taken from my home in hamburg to the auschwitzbirkenau extermination camp. Since my biological mother was sentian, the nazis considered me a gypsy and imprisoned me together with thousands of other roma in a socalled gypsy camp. Almost 90 of the total 23,000 inmates of the gypsy camp were murdered. Horrible as it was, the extermination camp auschwitz was just one site of the genocide committed against roma. All over nazi occupied europe, roma were killed at extermination camps or shot. Today, we know around 500,000 roma became victims of a campaign of systematic extermination. In auschwitz, i witnessed mass murder. There wer