January 27 this year was a special date. The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was celebrated around the world. The words spoken in Oświęcim by the former prisoner of the camp, Marian Turski, who called on young people not to be indifferent, echoed deeply, because “Auschwitz did not fall from heaven.”
Our students once again showed remarkable maturity and sensitivity by participating in two meetings with witnesses of those events, organized as part of the Krakow celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
On Monday, January 20, a group of students took part in a meeting with Ms Zofia Radzikowska, a Jewish woman who avoided the Holocaust by hiding in villages near Krakow. The meeting took place at the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University, and the All in UJ association and JCC Kraków were responsible for its organization.
On Friday, January 24, in a slightly changed composition, our students met with Mrs. Lidia Maksymowicz, a former prisoner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, a victim of pseudo-medical experiments carried out in the Auschwitz camp. The evening meeting took place at the Galicia Jewish Museum.
During both meetings, the students could listen to these difficult stories, ask their own questions or just talk to people who survived World War II. At the end of the Friday meeting, Mrs. Lidia Maksymowicz thanked everyone for their presence, especially glad to see so many young people. Like other witnesses to history, Lidia believes that the future of this world is in young hands.
