News
A Ring from the Crematorium
On the 58th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp by the Red Army, ceremonies were held at the site of the camp. Former prisoners were joined at the monument to the victims of the camp by government and local officials, and members of the diplomatic corps.
One of those who spoke was the ambassador of Israel in Poland, Shewah Weiss, who was rescued during the war by a Polish family who hid his family from the Germans. He showed to the public a ring engraved with an image of the crematorium, made by a Jewish prisoner. Before dying, the prisoner gave the ring to a Polish prisoner, Czesław Solica (camp no. 181454), who survived. Ambassador Weiss, in turn, was given the ring by Solica's children. "This is the only ring of its kind in the world," said the ambassador, adding that the person who made it was cremated at the very site of the ceremony.
Ambassador Weiss said that it would be unthinkable to forgive the perpetrators, some of whom are still alive and have children and grandchildren like the people they murdered and burned in Auschwitz. "This is a symbol of evil. Perhaps we will draw strength from this place to build a better world, a world of tolerance, a human world fighting against racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and hatred. May God grant us this," Weiss added.
