By Amber Maze
Holocaust Education & Program Coordinator for the Jewish Federation of Greater Indinapolis/CANDLES Holocaust Museum

The sun is shining and there is a pleasant breeze whispering through the branches of the willow trees that dot the landscape. Birds are chirping and butterflies flit from one flower to the next. The beautiful summer day at odds with the human ashes that are still mixed in with the soil. Standing on the grounds of Auschwitz is a very surreal experience, especially when the almost serene surroundings do not match the horrors that took place. I found myself making this observation for the third time this past July while on the annual CANDLES Holocaust Museum trip to Auschwitz. This time I was struck by the fact that we were quickly approaching the anniversary of the 75^th liberation, and I began to think more about those that survived than those that did not, although the dead is omnipresent in that place.

Auschwitz did not start off as a killing center, but rather transformed into one when the Nazi state determined extermination centers were the answer to the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” What began as a mid-sized concentration camp for Soviet POWs and Polish dissidents in 1940 morphed into the largest combined concentration and extermination camp established by the Third Reich. During the camp’s period of peak operations (1942-1944), it housed over 90,000 prisoners and stretched for 39 square miles (both Auschwitz I & II combined). While Jewish prisoners comprised the largest portion at 77% of the total camp population, they were not the only ones imprisoned there. Roma/Sinti, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles, Soviet POWs, Catholic clergy, and others deemed “undesirable” all called Auschwitz their hell on Earth. Perverse physicians, including the infamous Dr. Mengele, used prisoners as guinea pigs in their pseudoscientific quest to create a master race. Those who were not selected for the gas chambers faced the harsh reality of hard labor, starvation, and illness before death would ultimately claim them too. This cycle did not stop until Nazi Germany realized they were losing the war and the Soviets were practically on their doorstep.

On January 27, 1945 Soviet troops entered the main gates of Auschwitz I. Although the Soviets had liberated camps prior to this, Auschwitz was on a scale they had not previously witnessed. The full extent of Nazi brutality was laid bare as the troops advanced from Auschwitz I to the killing center of Auschwitz II-Birkenau two miles away. By the time the Soviets liberated the camp that bitterly cold morning, 1.1 million men, women and children had lost their lives. It is difficult to fully comprehend that many souls flickering out of existence in such a short period of time.

Auschwitz has become synonymous with pain, death and despair – as it rightly should be. So why do we choose to remember this depraved place? We remember the past so that we pass on the lessons humanity has yet to learn from the Holocaust. We remember to honor the survivors as well as the victims. We remember so that we can be upstanders in the face of persecution and injustice. We remember so we can raise our collective voices on behalf of those whose voices have been silenced in our world today. We remember.