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17.10.2022

International Auschwitz Committee congratulates President Van der Bellen on his re-election

 
 
30 January 2018: In view of the huge far-right and extreme populist challenges in many countries around the globe, Auschwitz survivors presented the Gift of Remembrance to the Federal President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen. The statuette represents the inverted letter B in the cynical inscription above Auschwitz camp’s main gate ARBEIT MACHT FREI (work makes you free). The prisoners secretly welded the letter B upside-down to give courage to fellow prisoners and resist the desperation in that murderous place. Image: Peter Lechner

30 January 2018: In view of the huge far-right and extreme populist challenges in many countries around the globe, Auschwitz survivors presented the Gift of Remembrance to the Federal President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen. The statuette represents the inverted letter B in the cynical inscription above Auschwitz camp’s main gate ARBEIT MACHT FREI (work makes you free). The prisoners secretly welded the letter B upside-down to give courage to fellow prisoners and resist the desperation in that murderous place. Image: Peter Lechner

 

 

 

Letter from Marian Turski and Christoph Heubner to the President of the Republic of Austria.

Dear Mr President,

We would like to wholeheartedly congratulate you on your re-election as President of the Republic of Austria. We are very pleased by this clear decision on the part of the Austrian voters. For survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps your renewed election come as a signal that you will continue to be an important and audible friend and ally to them in their politics of remembrance and their efforts to combat anti-Semitic and far-right activities in Europe.

We have vivid memories of the time you received us at the Hofburg, when you coined the phrase in your speech of thanks for the Statue B award: "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky", which Marian Turski used later in his address marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. And we equally well remember our meeting at the opening of the new Austrian exhibition at the Auschwitz Memorial. It is in this spirit that we sincerely hope for further meetings with you in the future. And we are happy that Hannah Lessing will continue to represent and support the interests of Austrian survivors and their descendants, and that since the General Assembly of the International Auschwitz Committee in September in Oswiecim she will also be supporting our committee as vice president within the European framework.

With best recommendations and good wishes for your future work.

Marian Turski
President
International Auschwitz Committee
 
Christoph Heubner
Executive Vice President
International Auschwitz Committee

 
 
 

For further Information

Christoph Heubner

Executive Vice President
International Auschwitz Committee
Phone ++ 49 (0)30 26 39 26 81