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Visits of Presidents of Croatia, Greece and Hungary to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum
In recent days, the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum was visited by three European presidents. On October 9th, the President of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, and on October 12th, the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and the President of Hungary, Tamás Sulyok.
"In recent weeks, we are noticing an increasing interest from diplomacy and the world of media in the upcoming 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The visits to the Memorial, which took place on the occasion of a regional summit in Kraków, are somewhat part of the whole process of preparing for this extremely symbolic anniversary," said Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, the director of the Museum.
"January 27, 2025, will see the attention of the whole world focused on the words of the Survivors, who will be listened to by guests gathered in front of the historical gate of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, including many state delegations at the highest level, and also—through media and the Internet—people all over the world," added Cywiński.
All presidents visited parts of the Museum's main exhibition, including Block 4, which contains basic information about the people deported to Auschwitz: Jews, Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, and other groups and nationalities incarcerated by the Germans in the camp. There is a model of the gas chamber and crematorium II from the Birkenau camp, cans of Cyclone B, and human hair cut from the heads of victims; and Block 5, where personal items stolen from the victims are displayed, such as shoes, suitcases, glasses, children’s clothes, and Jewish prayer shawls.
In front of the Execution Wall in the courtyard of Block 11, where executions by shooting took place, the presidents laid wreaths, paying tribute to all victims of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.
In the former Auschwitz I camp, the presidents also saw the building of the first gas chamber and crematorium, while at the site of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, they walked along the railway ramp where the SS doctors conducted the selection of Jews deported to the camp, all the way to the ruins of gas chambers and crematoria II and III.
President of Croatia Zoran Milanović also had the opportunity to see the space on the first floor of Block 17 designated for the new national exhibition, which is to be prepared jointly by the countries of the former Yugoslavia and dedicated to the camp's victims deported from this region.
"Visiting this Museum deeply moved me. This tragic period in European history teaches us that such crimes must never be repeated. The numerous activities of this Museum, along with its millions of visitors, contribute to this goal,” wrote Zoran Milanović in the Museum's Guest Book.
President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok additionally visited the Hungarian national exhibition opened in 2004, "Betrayed Citizen. In Memory of the Holocaust Victims from Hungary," which is dedicated to the mass deportations and extermination of Hungarian Jews, which took place 80 years ago. During the main phase of resettlements in 1944, about 420,000 Jews from Hungary were deported to Auschwitz, where about 75% were murdered immediately upon arrival and selection in the gas chambers.
"Humanity is sacred. Therefore, no one should ever judge another person's life, nor should any community judge another community, based on any beliefs, whether religious, ethnic, or ideological. This is a common responsibility of us all, from which no one should shy away," said President Sulyok.
President of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou wrote in the Museum's Guest Book: "It is the duty of all of us to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust, the most heinous crime of the 20th century, systematically carried out by the Nazi regime, the greatest atrocity committed by man and the most painful trauma to the body of Europe. It is the least we can do to the millions of innocent victims of this horrific genocide. We will never forget you. Never again!"
