Maria Gniaczyk (Warschau), Vereinigung ehemaliger Häftlinge von Bergen-Belsen
© all Photos Boris Buchholz

25 January 2009

“The Survivors’ Bequest”

Meeting of the Presidents of the international camp committees from 24 to 27 January in Berlin

Taking stock: this was the aim of the presidents of the international camp committees of former German concentration camps when they met, together with the directors of the Memorials, in Berlin from 24 to 27 January 2009 at the initiative of the International Auschwitz Committee.

“What have we achieved with our remembrance work, our educational and political initiatives, and above all in our conversations with young people; and what do we want to pass on to the younger generations, who meanwhile are working closely together with us in our committees or foundations?” – this was the opening question formulated by Noach Flug, President of the International Auschwitz Committee, at the meeting attended by delegates of the international committees of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Bergen-Belsen, Neuengamme, Flossenbürg, Natzweiler-Struthof and Mittelbau-Dora.

“For us, this meeting – particularly here in Berlin – is a symbolic meeting: our work is for the future. We are the ambassadors of all our men and women comrades who were murdered in the camps,” emphasized Dr Annette Chalut, President of the International Ravensbrück Committee at the reception given by Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit in Berlin’s town hall on 26 January 2009.

Germany’s Federal President Horst Köhler then underlined this great symbolic value when he welcomed the group of presidents from the international committees and the directors of the Memorials at his official residence in Bellevue Palace and thanked the survivors for their outstanding educational and political involvement.

Nevertheless, when taking stock of their work and their view of the world today, the survivors attested: “Precisely for this reason, we are exceedingly pained and angered to recognize today: the world has learned too little from our history. Precisely for this reason, remembrance and commemoration must remain the equal task of both citizens and states.”

The survivors’ “bequest”, from which this sentence is quoted, is entitled “Preserve Remembrance – Conserve authentic Places – Assume Responsibility”. It was handed over to the President of the German Bundestag, Dr Norbert Lammert, who accepted it on behalf of the German public, on 27 January, the day Auschwitz was liberated and International Holocaust Memorial Day.

Noach Flug, President of the International Auschwitz Committee stressed: “In the coming weeks and months, we will also take every opportunity to present our “bequest” within the European framework.”

left: Roger Bordage, Paris, Internationales Sachsenhausen Komitee
right: General Louis Garnier with Floreal Barrier, both Paris.

left: Pieter Dietz de Loos, Internationales Dachau Komitee
right: Sam Bloch, New York, World Federation of Bergen-Belsen

left: Albert van Hoey, Brüssel, Internationales Komitee Mittelbau-Dora
right: Dr. Max Mannheimer, München, and Uri Chanoch, Jerusalem

Dr. Annette Chalut, Neuilly/ Seine, Präsidentin des Internationalen Ravensbrück Komitees


left: Sonja Reichert, Luxemburg, Internationales Sachsenhausen Komitee
right: View into the conference room

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