Yes, we are forgetting

Dr Piotr Cywinski is director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the International Auschwitz Council.

Speaking in Sydney at a commemoration of Kristalllnacht, he made more than some pertinent observations - as his piece "Save Auschwitz so it can forever challenge our conscience", part of his speech, published in the SMH, shows:

"We should not compare tragedies or genocides but we ought to compare our passivity and silence in the face of other tragedies. Millions visit Holocaust memorial sites and museums. We read survivors' testimonies.

Yet, as we watch television and browse the internet, confronting genocides, we do not react, even though we can do so much more in today's global village. News circulates freely and the possibilities of taking action seem infinite, yet still we prefer to be bystanders.

It was for us that the Sonderkommando buried their diaries, along with the ash of those who perished; for us, the prisoners saved SS archives; for us, the escapees wrote reports.

We need to listen ever more carefully to those voices, to the voices of survivors, to the authenticity of the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Not only to remember. Not only to be aware of the lessons of this tragedy. But also to awaken the consciousness of our own responsibility for the world, today and tomorrow.

Only in this way will the echoes of Kristallnacht, of the whining train brakes and the opening doors of the cattle cars not fade.

Only in this way will the echoes of the innocent screams of those who were murdered in the gas chambers not fade. Only in this way will our deeds and words carry the echoes of their words. And their voices will not fade."

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