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New York, January 24th, 2005
Mr.
President,
Secretary General,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am here today as a
representative of Poland – the country whose territory
during the Nazi occupation was the scene of Holocaust – the
most horrific crimes in history. It is difficult to speak
about Holocaust, to find the adequate words to express our
feelings and thoughts.
Our debate has as its
subject a certain attack – effective and extremely dramatic
in its immediate and long-term consequences – against the
ethical code of any democratic civilisation, and especially
– against the commandment that “Thou shall not kill”. The
system of Nazi concentration camps combined with centres of
extermination of selected social and ethnic groups cost
Europe the lives of at least 10 million human beings. In the
name of protection of the human kind - we must never forget
that lesson of history.
Nazi concentration camps
existed in one form or another all over the part of Europe
occupied by the Germans and their allies, in Germany itself
and in annexed Austria. However, they left the most dramatic
imprint on the occupied countries, and most of all – on
Poland. That is the reason why our country has a special
interest in this matter.
Poland lost a large part
of its spiritual and political elite in Nazi concentration
camps, along with some three million – or 90 per cent - of
its Jewish citizens. It was in occupied Poland that Hitler’s
Germany located Auschwitz – its largest concentration camp
and at the same time greatest center of annihilation of
European Jews and Roma, the place of killings and suffering
of others, as well. KL Auschwitz came to symbolise Nazi
crimes.
Though it is Auschwitz
that became the symbol of the Holocaust and genocide, other
death camps also operated in Polish territories – including
Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, Majdanek and Chełmno. It must be
realized that even though the camps were located in Polish
territory, they were not – contrary to some historic and
media rhetoric – Polish camps. The camps have been created
by Nazi Germany, which was occupying Poland.
I would like to introduce
a very introduce a very personal note. Auschwitz is for me a
family graveyard. My father was killed there.
The expression Polish
camps is not only misleading. It also deeply hurts the
feelings of Poles.
Nazi Germany chose Poland
as the place of the massacre of European Jews for two
interconnected reasons. First, most of the Jews doomed to
death in their totality – from infants to old men – lived in
Central and Eastern Europe. Second – the perpetrators hoped
to conceal their crime from the world by committing it far
from Western Europe. The crime was meant to remain a state
secret.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Poland is aware of its
special role, stemming from the fact that it has in its care
all those places of remembrance – so important to the whole
world - of the greatest crime of the Second Millennium,
remembrance of the people who suffered and died. It is an
enormous and profound moral responsibility, a mandate that
we fulfil in the name of all Europe and the rest of the
world, a mission that we feel is ours.
Our dedication to this
special mission is indicated by the fact that solemn
ceremonies will be held at the initiative of the Polish
government at the site of the former KL Auschwitz, to
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by
the Soviet Army.
Our country will spare no
effort to ensure lasting preservation of the remnants of the
concentration camps and extermination centers, located in
Poland by the German occupiers, to turn them into places
open to the world, where historic reflection and education
will take place in a spirit of democracy and tolerance.
It is our duty to preserve
the memory of what happened, but also to shape the awareness
of the young generations in a spirit of tolerance, respect
for human rights and sensitivity to any manifestations of
discrimination. That goal could be implemented through
educational programs – such as those envisaged at the Center
of Education About Auschwitz and the Holocaust - planned in
Oświęcim, and through the Institute of Peace and
Reconciliation – which will study contemporary acts of
genocide.
Poland also developed
successful programs of youth exchange, which are the best
form of active dialogue allowing to combat stereotypes of
present generation by confronting them with personal
experience and people-to-people contact. An example of that
is the annual March of the Living, with the participation of
Jewish and Polish youth, organized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Museum.
In
conclusion, I would like to repeat the name of Majdanek. In
Majdanek the ashes of those who were murdered have been
collected inside a big, concrete urn which is a monument to
the memory of the victims. It bears an inscription that none
of the visitors can miss: “Our fate should be a warning to
all of you”.
That is what we should
talk about here today. Those who have been put to death,
either in gas chambers or through starvation or inhuman
labour, in Auschwitz and other concentration camps can never
be forgotten. May their fate be a warning when today we
witness the plight of the victims of hunger and
extermination in different parts of the world.
Thank you for your
attention.
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