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Auschwitz gave rise to the unification of Europe. Martin Schulz visits the Memorial Site
On 20 April, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz visited the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp ;Auschwitz-Birkenau. The guest was guided around the Memorial Site by the deputy director of the Museum, Andrzej Kacorzyk.
“It is completely clear to me that you leave this place as a different person than when you arrive. One must come here to realize how deep the collapse of civilization was. When you view the children's shoes, glasses or human hair … it changes a person. ;And this is why, with all its horrors, it is such an important place,” said Martin Schulz.
“I think that our work in the European Union, international cooperation and the abolition of borders is an element of trust but also an element of control and guarantee that Auschwitz will never happen again. This place is an appeal. I believe Auschwitz was the beginning of the unification of Europe, and it is good that today the European Union is committed to the preservation of this site,” stressed the President of the European Parliament.
Within the area of the former Auschwitz I, Martin Schulz viewed, among others, part of the museum exhibition in block 4 and 5, the crematorium and gas chamber, and the Museum Archives. At the Death Wall in the courtyard of block 11, the German politician placed a wreath paying tribute to the victims.
The President then visited the Auschwitz II-Birkenau. He walked along the railway ramp, where from the spring of 1944, the transports arrived containing Jews deported by the Nazis for extermination, along with the ruins of the crematoria and gas chambers. In the main Sauna building of the camp, in the hall that showcases the private photographs of Jews murdered in Auschwitz, Martin Schulz signed the visitors' book.
“I write this in memory of all the victims who have suffered the unspeakable crimes here. No victim of this barbarism will be forgotten,” wrote Martin Schulz.
