this may be the last anniversary to include a handful of survivors. 1.59 people lost their lives. some 1500 survivors attended the 60th anniversary in 2005. today, there were fewer than 300 on hand. some are more than 100 years old. it prompted many to ask how to sustain their memory when they are gone. this is two hours. ♪ ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to today's observation. let me welcome the former inmates and the survivors. [applause] let me welcome all of the distinguished guests from all over the world's. including representatives of jewish communities and others. now i am asking the president for his address. today's ceremony is under his patronage. [applause] [applause] ladies and gentlemen, and especially you the survivors. all distinguished guests, we are in the place where our civilization, and it plays where they plan to the bride men of their dignity was systematically executed, where german nazis a human being was reduced to a cap number. 70 years ago, a survivor said, here, they kept my family imprisoned. here they took my name away and gave me a number. never was i me, i became a number. we are standing in the place were over one million people were murdered. the overwhelmingly majority of them being dudes -- jews. we are standing in the blaze that reminds us of the murders. it undermines the perverts of the world. it was exactly 70 years ago that the camp was liberated by the troops of the 60th army of the first ukrainian red army. on that day, in the afternoon the division entered through the main part of the cap. -- camp. it is with gratitude and respect that we are thinking about those soldiers today. ladies and gentlemen what was demonstrated in auschwitz was content for a human being. --contempt for a human being. they wanted to kill again by forgetting. each and every one of you survivors of the camp, survivors of hatred and fatality, are the god guardians of our memory. you are the most important part of today's commemoration. being a guardian of the memory of auschwitz and tells not only the remembrance of the crime itself and also reflection the nation's ideologies and state policies. this is the memory of the totalitarian regime that lay at the foundation of the collapse of our civilization of the 20th century. in a particular way we guard this tragic memory. the regime began to execute. in 1940, the german occupation authority decided to go ahead with the campaign to exterminate the polish intelligence. the soviet leaders decided to commit certain crimes, mass murders of polish officers. at the same time germans made concentration camps for polish prisoners at the time. it was expanded later by adding the death camps. the german occupier made a tear of exceptional magnitude and the extermination of the european jews. european nazis made poland an internal cemetery of jews -- eternal cemetery of jews. this is exactly why poland occupies a role of the memory of auschwitz. what is the memory of auschwitz today? it is mainly a memory of suffering. it is a remembrance of a wound that is still open and heard during -- hurting. it is a memory of a cursed ways, a place that took a toll on everyone who ever came close. in memory of auschwitz it is remembering that even in the face of the darkest fall of humanity, the greatest hero is sanctity. here the world is being theing this joined and saved. whosoever saves a single life saves an entire universe. here, these words are true. ladies and gentlemen, for over 70 years, we have been trying to convey to the world the truth of the evil inflicted in these german death factories. in the name of the truth. i think those who see the truth and speak about the perpetrators of this crime. the international auschwitz council do so in a unique way. the foundation thanks donors from all over the world as they continued efforts to preserve the premises of the camps. you are contributing to the dating of this powerful sign of memory -- you are contributing to the powerful sign of memory. it should be so. since the memory of auschwitz it is also the memory of the need to defend our values -- freedom, justice tolerance, and respect for human rights and civil freedoms. years ago, john paul the second said that auschwitz was the conscience of humanity. he warned that never can one nation developed at the cost of another at the price of making the defendant concord on the enslaved -- conquered enslaved. we shall remember what the violation -- from this place, we are condemning hatred. an auschwitz survivor said that all who forget our doomed to relive it -- are doomed to relive it. our duty, the duty of europe and the world is to remember for those in this effort here -- for those who suffered here for years. it is our duty to remember for ourselves and for the future. [applause] >> today we all want to listen to these words to the voice of the witnesses. i am now asking a former auschwitz inmate to take the floor. [applause] >> i never let them die. today, requests, applications, letters, sanction, waiting from understanding for the memory. supposedly unnecessary, i never let them die. auschwitz 70th anniversary. auschwitz is a place that used to be alone. my father used -- [indiscernible] this place began the only reality for me. it was a pit of hell that i could not get out of. all around us, electric barbed wire, stinking mud and a figures muddling through. you cannot tell if they are old o'er young, women ornamentals that it is gusting -- old o'er young. women are men. or men. it is gusting mass of people. --a disgusting mass of people. nothing remotely human. agony, hunger, sickness, diseases. death in a gas chamber. refined and sophisticated torture everywhere for anything and everything. all of this with nature's approval. it was used by the oppressors. those german songs that you have to saying. -- to sing. we were taunted by a german band. sometimes they would ask us how far is it to the jewish colonies. i remember it was christmas. there was fire. fire burned a human bodies and the trains with more victims. i was there, so very much there. a jewish child -- many a times did i fear out of fear and passion and pain. i would look and see the agony of my fellow prisoners with a terrible pain. every moment was a terrible memory, terrible thoughts. what there be another one? there was a roll call. the sun was shining. i had a fleeting thought. maybe one day, i would burn this committee area -- this claimant rematarium. when you are 14, you have a different idea of what death is. i lived to see the oppressors defeated. then i saw the nazis burning documents. i was incapacitated because i was shot by one of the guards. it was 1945, a single shot. the guard aimed at my heart but he missed. all that happened was my nerve was damaged. i was liberated by the russians. it was one of the two lat st camps in germany. it was something my mother dreamed of before they took her away from me. it is fresh in my memory. as i am telling you, i am reliving. people who died here, tortured here all that remains our ashes scattered by the wind. the greatest debt is to pass on this memory, to tell others about how much they deserve to live. i want to tell the world about that. it is an overwhelming daily terror. i was 10 and then 15. it all transports me back to those moments. those images are etched deep in my mind. through them, i can tell right from wrong and what they reality is like and i can be vigilant. i can recognize evil lurking nearby. these memories make it impossible for me and i cannot reconcile it with the fact that people do not really understand what auschwitz was. this life was threatened by others. people who want to take away someone's life, someone's possessions. there is a fear. there is denial. all of that terrifies me. i go out rage because i know -- i feel outraged. i know what that hell can do if nobody stops it. the evil lingers and it is reborn into growing terror in anti-semitism and racism. it grows in people. sometimes, when i am really stunned with what is happening i keep telling myself, auschwitz could -- if that is possible, worse things are possible. we need to oppose that. so no further prejudice occurs. the museum and memorial, they are doing great work. the management, the employees, they are all keeping those documents and memorials and they keep the testimony of witnesses. they preserve all of that, this knowledge about the lives of millions of people, people so close to death. this memory of human strength, friendship, and love. here, i would like to thank the management of the museum and all of you. it is my privilege i can participate in this commemoration of the 70th anniversary of auschwitz liberation. i am just an inmate, just a prison number. 48693. i would like to thank all of you for a momentous moment we have here. i would like to thank all of you for that. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, now i am welcoming a former inmate of auschwitz to take the floor. [applause] >> mr. president, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, dear inmates, my fellows, you are in a german concentration camp of auschwitz as an element that is an enemy of the right for jews for young and healthy. this is how long you have the right to live. no longer than that. any insubordination o'er rebellion will be ruthlessly stamped down. for any resistance to authority attempted escape, debt is the penalty. the only way out is through the chimney o'er the crematoria. these were the words shouted out to us, 728 polish political prisoners of the first transport on the 14th of june 1914. they were made our reality with criminal persistence for over 4.5 years of existence. a testimony to this, soviet prisoners of war jews, representatives of federal nations. -- several other nations. it was proven by terror, hunger. this was from the very first days. in 1942, the auschwitz concentration camp was transformed into the death camp. coming to the railway ramp every day, transports of jews from all of the captures. doctors conducted selections. women who can work are taken to the blocks of auschwitz 1. pregnant women, the ailing, old, and children go to the gas chambers. the holocaust takes a deathly toll and the efficiency of crematoria is not sufficient for the henchmen. several sub camps are developed to which cap administration provides the labor, caching plenty of money for the work of the slaves. the madness of the people is opposed by the stronger individuals. from the first day, a struggle or biological survival continues. a struggle to take away from death the maximum number of beings and for preservation of human dignity within the cap and around the camp, there was also an organized resistance. a movement managed by the army and the peasants. the dedication of the polish people around the camp did not have a price. inmates escaped to take out documents of crimes, to pass to the world the truth about the camp, and to fight in arms with occupants. you were lucky to experience that. only 10% of the escapes ended in success. to the sound of the siren, units supported by the armed patrols of the germans replaced the settled poles, went for pursuits. the excruciating yell of the sirens inspired fear in inmates. it also gave the hope that the world would learn about the crimes of the nazis. i, myself, heard the siren for the last time late in the evening on the 27th of february 1943 when, having escaped from auschwitz among the floating ice, i was crossing a river. that sound continues to vibrate in my subconscious ever sense. i have paid a high price for escaping the camp. my sister and mother were deported. -- or deported. -- were deproted. together with my colleagues, former inmates, i can now be standing before the monument of the victims. i honor the memory of those who did not survive some of those who passed away. >>thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen roman kent to take the floor. [applause] >> i am often asked how long i was in auschwitz. my answer is, i do not know. what i do know is that one minute in auschwitz was like an entire day. a day was like a year. a month, an attorney at the. -- an eternity. how many eternities can one person have in a single lifetime? i do not know the answer. this was the war. today, 70 years later for me, a survivor, to forget the arabic experiences -- the horrific experiences even for one moment is impossible. witnessing the atrocities at the entrance gate to auschwitz was more than enough to keep me awake at night until the end of time. it is there, you see the germans welcome and begin to brutalize their guests. they were driven into families. [indiscernible] even 70 years later, the cruelty and and human behavior in the camps is etched in my mind. the look of pleasure on the murderous faces and their laughter as they tortured innocent men, women, children, is beyond -- lingers in my consciousness. human skeletons. just skin and bones. how can i ever forget the smell of burned flesh that permeated the air? many of us came to auschwitz not knowing each other in life. the heartbreaking weeping of the children torn from their mother's arms by the brutal action of the torturers will ring in my ears until i am laid to rest. i continue to wonder if the cries of these youngsters ever penetrated heaven's gate. we survivors continuously came face to face with that. yet, despair was not our response. despite hopelessness, we created a drive out of the world of darkness. we are -- the consuming evil we were forced to endure. we survivors cannot, dare not to forget the millions who were murdered. if we were to forget, the conscience of mankind would be buried alongside the victims. today, in this place, we are part of the 70th anniversary commemorating the liberation of auschwitz. the opportunity to expand a meaningful, heartfelt message to leaders of all nations. we must all remember, for if you , the leaders of the world what a remember and teach others to remember, then the holocaust [indiscernible] [applause] to remember is not enough. it is our mutual obligation that of survivors and national leaders, to install in future generations, the understanding of what happens when fear and prejudice and hatred are allowed to flourish. we must all teach our children tolerance and understanding both at home. we all must make clear that hate is never right. love is never wrong. [applause] when i think of the holocaust as i often do, there are a few things i consider really haunting. without hesitation, the courageous and harowing seats of those who saved -- feats of those who saved lives endangered their own lives and that of their families. to save the lives of strangers. just a few against tens of millions of. show the world that the answer to indifference is involvement and the courage to make moral choices and act in accordance with their choices. it will be an example. [indiscernible] the individual had a choice and the capacity to behave humanly if he or she only cared and had the carriage --- courage to act accordingly. [applause] we survivors share a common goal with a generation. hopefully, with future generations, we do not want our past to be our children's future. [ applause ] i really wanted to repeat it but you interrupted it by the applause. but i will still repeat it. because that's the key to my existence. we survivors do not want our past to be our children's future. i hope -- i hope and believe that this generation will build on mankind's great traditions tempered by understanding that these traditions must embrace pluralism and tolerance. human rights for all people. and must include opposition to anti-semitism and to racism of any sort. it should be commonplace rather than exceptions. unfortunately, the passage of time makes it more and more apparent that there is an effort by the ideological successors of the perpetrators as well as the deniers and the ignorant abetted by much of the media. i can repeat it. that it was a -- it is abetted by much of the media. to sanitize, to sanitize this, they employ language to describe the holocaust so that it appears less wicked and brutal. their efforts onbscures the truth of what actually happened. for example, it has been become routine to use the word "lost" when referring to relatives and loved ones who were brutally murdered during the holocaust. but the term lost does not accurately describe what happened. lost referred to something that has been misplaced or has gone astray. 11 million people including 6 million jews and 1 1/2 million jewish children were not lost. or misplaced. these children were murdered as were generations that would have followed them. similarly, we often hear that millions perished during the holocaust. let me make clear those died in auschwitz, they did not perish in the normal sense of the word. they were viciously killed murdered, burned in the crematorium. for all intents and purposes, by not telling it as it actually was, clearly and without qualification or hedging, we offensively diminish our outrage that should exist. in effort, we protect the perpetrators who performed these reprehencible deeds. by using sanitized words, by cleaning up what happened, we are knowingly helped the deniers. they lessen the atrocities of the perpetrators. and yet, and yet, in view of the killing participation anywhere of so many world's leaders, there is visible sign of compassion and improvement instead of indifference. this is progress. it is now up to the leaders of tomorrow but there remains so much more to be done. we all must be involved and stay involved. no one, no one should ever be a spectator. i feel so strongly about this point that if i had the power i would add an 11th commandment. you should never never be a bystander. i have hope there is a brighter future for mankind. after all, we live together on the same planet. perhaps when we all find that we are one people, we can then ensure that tragedy like auschwitz will never happen again to us or to any other people. [applause] i am going to end my remarks with a quote expressing one survivors thoughts on auschwitz. from whatever country, you look at the rooms of the camp think and do all you can. for you and your children, the ashes of auschwitz are a warning. hatred will never grow again neither tomorrow nor ever. thank you. [applause] >> i am not a survivor although i am grateful for the survivors here today. and not a liberator although i salute their courage of the veterans among us today. i am here simply as a jew. like jews everywhere, this place , this terrible place called auschwitz touches our souls. i have always wondered if i had been born in hungary, where my grandparents were from instead of new york in february 1944, would i have lived? the answer is no. i would have been one of the 438,000 under area and juice -- hungarian jews killed by the not cease here -- by the not seeazis here in auschwitz. >> not the germany believed that jews had no right to live. the holocaust was designed by the nazis. there was complicity by almost every country in europe. [applause] 470 years philosophers, and historians have tried to explain