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Commemorating the Anniversary of the First Deportation to Auschwitz
June 14, Oświęcim (PAP—Polish Press Agency). The 66th anniversary of the deportation of 728 Polish political prisoners to the German Auschwitz camp was marked in Oswiecim on Wednesday. June 14 is regarded as the day when the camp began functioning. Former prisoners, including some from the first transport, took part in the ceremony.
This was the first year in which the ceremony took place on Nazi Concentration Camp Victims Remembrance Day, established on June 8 this year by an act of the Polish parliament.
The culminating point of the ceremony was an ecumenical service held at Block no. 11 at the Auschwitz site. Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy of the Bielsko-Żywiec diocese led the prayers. He said that the soil at the Auschwitz site was steeped in the remains of the victims: Jews—sentenced to extermination as a people in their entirety—Poles, Roma, Russians, and so many other nationalities. That soil, he said, cried out to God and the world for the peace of Christ, today and forever.
"The peace of Christ stands in radical contradiction to peace built on violence and on the trampling of the dignity of man, peoples, and nations," said Rakoczy. "His peace shows in full the face of dignity, love, equality, and friendship."
Clergy from Christian churches (Roman Catholic, Lutheran-Augsburg Confession, Seventh-Day Adventist and Polish Catholic) were joined in prayer by Seiyu Kiriyama, the founder of the Japanese Agon Shu Buddhist group.
At the conclusion of the prayers, young people issued an appeal to the leaders of states and religions for a world built on the foundations of a civilization of love, and free from war, violence, and terrorism. After the appeal, white doves were released.
Former prisoners joined with the young people, clergy, and local government officials in paying tribute to the memory of the prisoners murdered at the Death Wall outside Block no. 11, where the Germans shot thousands of people. They laid wreaths and lighted candles.
Former prisoner Józef Hordyński (camp number 347), who arrived in Auschwitz on the first transport, said at the Death Wall that "we make the pilgrimage here every year not only to pay homage to their memory, but also to appeal to all people of good will on this earth to create a lasting refutation to Auschwitz. The only possible alternative is peace between nations and individuals. Let the 21st century be the century of God's peace on earth! There can perhaps be no greater lesson that people can draw from Auschwitz."
Former Auschwitz prisoners also placed flowers at the plaque on the so-called Tobacco Monopoly building that commemorates the first deportation. The Germans held the 738 Polish prisoners in the basement of the building on June 14, 1940, because the Auschwitz I camp was not yet ready for them.
A museum of the first transport is scheduled to open in the Tobacco Monopoly building soon. Kazimierz Zając (camp number 261), who was a prisoner in the first transport, recalled that the original Polish prisoners had been lobbying for such a museum for several years. "Today, we are convinced that the memory of the camp's beginnings and of our fate will not be forgotten," he said. "We want to thank from our hearts all of those who have laid the groundwork for that museum. I know that some of my fellow prisoners have already pledged to donate their camp memorabilia to the planned museum."
The first transport reached Auschwitz on June 14, 1940, when the Germans deported 728 Polish political prisoners from the prison in Tarnów. They included soldiers who had fought against the Germans in September 1939, members of clandestine resistance organizations, secondary-school and university students, and several Polish Jews.
The Nazis deported between 140 and 150 thousand Poles to Auschwitz. Between 70 and 75 thousand of them perished in Auschwitz, and many others died after being transferred to other camps. 239 of the prisoners from the first transport survived the war. (PAP)
