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Through my eyes

Through my eyes

Author: Kasia Yoko
Date: 2020-02-07

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it"

Last week, while celebrating life and the abundance that is our life, my family united to pay our respects to the Auschwitz survivors, and the memory of those who lost their lives.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of its liberation by the Soviet army. Auschwitz was one of the biggest concentration camps this world has ever seen where 1.6 million people lost their lives.

I was born in Oswiencim (Auschwitz) fifty years ago, and like so many people born in Poland at that time, we were traumatised by the aftershock of the atrocities that took place under the Nazi rule.

While our grandparents tried to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, our parents felt the gravest trauma. Poverty after the war was so chronic it claimed the lives of so many weakened by the struggle.

There's no word in the dictionary to describe how human dignity was trampled on.My parents are great examples how determination to survive kept them going, running from the life that represented such hardships. Bringing us here.

There always was this desperate need in them to make the next generations know what they went through so that it will never happen again.

The words of an Auschwitz survivor, Marian Turski who said that; "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky", remind us that people did this.

"It was pittering, puttering, it was approaching in tiny steps. It was approaching until what happened here behind me did happen."

Mr Turski spoke about the build-up to the formation of the hatred for the Jews and the minorities living in Europe. In his speech he encourages us not to be blinded by the hatred that is building up in our societies.

He says: "Do not be indifferent"

"This happened, which means that it may happen again, which means that it may happen anywhere in this world."

Another survivor, Marian Turski, appealed to the world not to "be indifferent when you see historical lies."

"Do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated against," he said. "Democracy hinges on rights of minorities being protected."

Turski stressed that the "11th Commandment" must be: "Thou shall not be indifferent."

"If you don't heed the 11th Commandment... you cannot be surprised when you see [another] Auschwitz fall from the sky," he said.

Mr. Turski said being indifferent when small steps of prejudice are implemented little by little is what leads to events like the Holocaust.

Listening to his words once again I can't help but feel compassion with every human being who suffered from racism and persecution. It's scary to know the dark potential humans have as a species. And then when I look around South Africa, I feel the need to heed his warnings. Go in love this week and cherish your fellow man.