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Liberation of Auschwitz

As usual, I will not be politically correct and sparing in words. At a time when everyone knows everything and everyone is entitled to their opinion. A time when intolerance is increasing and the disregard for others is a commonplace justified by the right of one for that opinion, I talk about a topic that is particularly difficult for me for many reasons.

Seventy years ago, the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. When the Red Army arrived at the camp, they found a place where 1.5 million people were killed and something that goes completely beyond imagination. Not even the tough soldiers of the Red Army were prepared to see the atrocities made there.

Thousands of people, from all over Europe, were taken to the field purposely built to become a factory of death. Among the unbearable stench of corpses, there were frozen pools of blood on the floor and half naked living people facing freezing temperatures. People tortured and victims of medical experiments were also there. The prisoners had such a thin skin that it was possible to see their veins and their eyes were bulging because the tissues around them were gone.

Poor Europe, poor world, poor of the consciences.

Once again, among the barbarism to which Jews and other prisoners were subjected, the world closed the eyes. The news of the liberation of the camp and the horrors happened there, was marginalized. The press rarely highlighted what happened there, even in the following years.

Liberation of Auschwitz - Auschwitz II - Birkenau - Access gate and main track.

Auschwitz II – Birkenau – Access gate and main track. Author: C.Puisney



It was the result of the stingy and disgusting hatred in the so called civilized countries against the Jews.

It was only in 1961 the world took full awareness of what really happened during the holocaust. Israel had already become a nation and had understood that the price for survival, the right to exist, to be respected and especially, the right to freedom, sometimes has to be won through the use of force. Mossad agents were sent to Argentina to capture Adolf Eichmann, the man that was responsible for the field. It would be easier to kill him by the side of a road, but he was taken to Israel for trial and sentenced to death.

Anti-Semitism was not – and still is not – exclusive of the Nazis or the Germans. Many people saw – and some still see – the Jews as an evil influence that rules the world. About 5.5 million Jews died during World War II. Fortunately many survived to tell people what happened there or we would run the risk to see something so barbaric to be denied.

I leave my humble tribute to the brave Jewish people and to all the victims of the Shoah. My tribute to those who survived the atrocity and extermination. My tribute to all those who refuse to live in the face of tyranny and inhumanity. My heartfelt tribute especially to the courage of the Israelite nation to survive the persecution, the ancestral hatred, despotism and which refuses to cease to exist at all costs.

About João Fernandes

Graduated in International Relations; Business Manager at Webmind; Blogger and multiple interests in the areas of science, technology, history and politics. Works as a Freelance on websites and advertising.

One comment

  1. And also a tribute for two men: Aristides de Sousa Mendes and Oskar Schindler… Among many others who helped to save the live of many Jews.

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