Katsav to address ceremony marking anniversary of Auschwitz liberation

By Aviva Lori, Haaretz Correspondent
Reproduced with permission from ©Haaretzdaily
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/532497.htm
Thu., January 27, 2005

President Moshe Katsav will address a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on Thursday. (For full text see http://www.mfa.gov.il)

Over forty heads of state, including German President Horst Koehler, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and French President Jacques Chirac, will gather along with survivors and liberators at the camp, some 60 kilometers from Krakow, Poland.

Also in attendance will be U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the presidents of the Czeck Republic and Hungary, the prime ministers of Italy and Greece, and the queen of Holland.

Aushwitz-Birkenau, the most infamous of the Nazi extermination camps, was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945.

More than 10,000 guests and 1,600 journalists have come from around the world to Krakow, filling every hotel in the city.

"I'm closing a circle," said one of the survivors. "I've returned after 60 years. I haven't been able to sleep for two weeks."

83-year-old Dan Arad, an Israel Defense Forces pensioner and the author of a book called Surviving Auschwitz, came with his wife from Haifa. He feels lucky. He was at Auschwitz-3.

"Conditions were good there," he said. "Each person had a bed. We had money in the form of coupons. We could trade with the Polish prisoners. They used it for prostitutes and we got bread in exchange." Auschwitz-3 was the forced labor camp. That is where the fit and healthy were sent."

"I spent six weeks at Birkenau, until [Josef] Mengele came to our barracks and looked at me," Arad said. "I still looked pretty good and he sent me to Auschwitz-3."

Wednesday, a ceremony was held at the Krakow military cemetery, where Polish, British and Russian soldiers who fell in World War Two are buried.

Additionally, there was an Israeli military ceremony in honor of 13 soldiers from British-mandate Palestine who fought in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army, fell into German captivity and ended up buried in the British plot of Krakow's military cemetery, far from home.

Chief IDF Chaplain Rabbi Yisrael Weiss read psalms and chanted El Maleh Rahamim, the prayer for the dead. President Katsav laid a wreath, and later, in the freezing cold and the constantly falling snow, he placed tiny Israeli flags on the 13 graves. A Polish military band played Hatikva.

A meeting between Katsav and Putin planned for Wednesday was canceled, although Katsav said efforts are still being made to reschedule for Thursday.

The idea of holding the commemoration was born a year ago, when the secretary of Poland's national council on memorials, Andje Pshabuzhnik, suggested hosting a meeting of the liberators and survivors at the camp, 60 years later. Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski adopted the idea, which initially called only for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli President Moshe Katsav. But then, French President Jacques Chirac heard about the plan and asked to take part, and soon, other statesmen from around the world wanted to join in as well.