News
"Solidarity Express" in Oświęcim
About 200 young people from 40 countries who are taking part in the Solidarity Express program visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on December 2. They viewed the exhibits in block 4, devoted to the Holocaust, and block 5, with its collection of evidence of Nazi crime including human hair, prostheses, shoes, and suitcases with names on them. They also visited block 11, known as the Death Block, and the Death Wall, the crematorium I building at the Auschwitz Main Camp site, and the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site, where the mass killing of Jews took place.
The young people were visibly shocked by what they saw. Julia Malishova of Moscow said that coming to the Museum was an important lesson in history. “It’s important for us Russians,” she said, “because we suffered as a result of Soviet totalitarianism. Now we need to know as much as possible about history. For Russians, it’s important to fight for democracy today.”
The Moscow journalism student said that she had visited the Auschwitz site before. “I didn’t want to come here this morning,” she said. “When you’ve been here once, you don’t want to do it again. You remember it your whole life. I didn’t want to return to this depressing atmosphere. But we should remember this place. You don’t remember it in everyday life, you don’t think about it, but a visit to Auschwitz has meaning and it’s good that it’s a part of the Solidarity Express. I think that, once we get home, we’ll do something to make the world better.”
The Solidarity Express marks the 25th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Lech Wałęsa. Organizer Andrzej Puchacz said that it is intended to show not only Poland, but also Europe the most valuable aspects of solidarity, the transformation process, and our future.
On a special train called the Solidarity Express, the participants have spent four days visiting not only Auschwitz but also Cracow, where Karol Wojtyła received his spiritual formation, Warsaw (the Warsaw Rising Museum), Gdańsk (the Gdańsk shipyard), and Westerplatte.
Speaking about the visit to the Auschwitz site, Puchacz said that it was a place where freedom was marked by the smoke from the crematorium chimneys. “Not long from now, we’ll be in Gdańsk, and freedom looks different there,” he said. “It’s that second form of freedom that we’re talking about—democracy, mutual respect, and toleration.”
The Solidarity Express project also includes a series of discussions and lectures for the young people by Professor Władysław Bartoszewski and the American author George Weigel on the significance of freedom and dignity in building a peaceful world order.
The main focus of the project is Gdańsk, where there will be a Youth Forum on December 5—a meeting between the young people and the Nobel Prize winner. The 14th Dalai Lama and Frederik Willem de Klerk have confirmed that they will be present at the forum.
