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An undated archive photo shows Auschwitz II-Birkenau's main
guard house which prisoners called 'the gate of death' and the
railway with the remains of abandoned crockery. The railway,
which was built in 1944, was the last stop for the trains
bringing Jews to the death camp.
(Reuters) | |
Jerzy Afanasjew's body tenses and his eyes close when he recalls the
day he crawled out from the overcrowded cattle train as a 14-year-old boy
to begin a six-month nightmare.
"What was Auschwitz? It was hell. Hell. A death factory," he says in a
measured pace. "If you weren't gassed, you were exhausted to death, if you
weren't exhausted to death, you starved, if you didn't starve, you died of
disease."
Afanasjew is one of a dwindling group of people who, by
chance or cunning, cheated death at Auschwitz, the biggest Nazi
extermination camp during World War II that has become the symbol of the
Holocaust.
On Jan. 27, hundreds of survivors and dozens of world leaders will
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation by the Soviet
army and pay homage to the estimated 1.5 million people, mostly Jews,
murdered there by the Nazis.
"Auschwitz is a place where we share the responsibility to remember the
past with the goal of building a better society," said Abver Shalev,
chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance institute, who will
attend the commemorations.
Set up in 1940 by occupying Nazi forces near the town of Oswiecim in
southern Poland as a labor camp for Poles, Auschwitz gradually became the
centerpiece in Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's "final solution" plan to
exterminate Jews.
The scale of the industrialized killing at the camp, the cruelty of the
guards and the pseudo-medical
experiments conducted on prisoners by Nazi doctors have made Auschwitz
synonymous with a coldly efficient genocide and total degradation of
humanity.
Men, women and children -- mostly Jewish, but Gypsies, Russians and
Poles too -- from Nazi-occupied Europe were taken to Auschwitz in
overcrowded cattle trains. Many died of hunger and suffocation during the journey which usually
lasted days.
Terrified, foul-smelling and starving, those who made the trip were
often relieved at the prospect of fresh air and food. They did not know
that the smoke from nearby chimneys was coming from crematoria burning the bodies of
earlier arrivals.
Illusions were quickly dispelled as the guards separated those capable
of hard work from the elderly and children who were sent straight to the
gas chambers -- the process known in the
camp as "selection."
Those who survived the "selection," not knowing what happened to family
and friends, were stripped of their clothes, belongings and identity. A
number was tatted on their arm and they were given a soup bowl and spoon.
Dressed in characteristic striped uniforms, the prisoners were then
marched toward the labor camp under the gate adorned with giant
inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work sets one free) that came to
symbolize the depth of Nazi cynicism.
Crammed in bare wooden or brick barracks, prisoners worked 12-hour days
in construction and factories. Better jobs were found in the kitchens or
offices.
After sleepless nights and long hours of backbreaking work, the prisoners
were forced outside to attend roll-calls which lasted for hours. Those who
died were piled up next to the standing to be counted.
Compounded by epidemics, the death rate of prisoners was 19-25 percent
a month in 1942-43.
(Agencies) |
當(dāng)他回想起14歲那年的一天，自己從擁擠不堪的裝運牲口的火車中爬出來開始6個月噩夢（般的生活）時，杰爾茨·阿法納斯奇全身緊繃，雙眼緊閉。
“奧斯維辛是什么？它是地獄。地獄。一個死亡工廠。”他有節(jié)奏地說道，“如果你沒有被毒氣毒死，你會累死，如果你沒有累死，你會餓死，如果你沒有餓死，那么你會病死。”
阿法納斯奇是極少數(shù)靠運氣或機智從奧斯維辛活著出來的人之一，奧斯維辛是二戰(zhàn)中最大的納粹滅絕營，現(xiàn)在已成為大屠殺的象征。
1月27日，幾百名幸存者和世界（各國）的許多元首們將共同紀(jì)念前蘇聯(lián)軍隊解放奧斯維辛集中營60周年，并向被納粹屠殺的約150萬人——其中多數(shù)為猶太人——致敬。
以色列Yad
Vashem大屠殺紀(jì)念館館長阿布沃爾·沙利說：“要建設(shè)一個更美好的社會，我們有責(zé)任牢記過去，牢記奧斯維辛。”他將出席這次的紀(jì)念活動。
1940年，占領(lǐng)波蘭南部城鎮(zhèn)奧斯維辛附近的納粹軍隊建造了一座波蘭勞工營，后來奧斯維辛逐漸成為納粹獨裁者阿道夫·希特勒消滅猶太人的“最后解決”計劃的中心。
奧斯維辛集中營中工業(yè)化屠殺的規(guī)模，殘暴的警衛(wèi)以及納粹醫(yī)生在囚犯身上進行的所謂“醫(yī)學(xué)實驗”都讓人們一提到奧斯維辛，就想到無情的大屠殺和人性的徹底泯滅。
納粹軍隊用牛車把男人、女人和兒童從占領(lǐng)的歐洲地區(qū)押送到奧斯維辛，牛車上擁擠不堪，其中大部分是猶太人，但也有吉普賽人，俄國人和波蘭人。在長達幾天的旅途中，許多人因饑餓、窒息而死。
那些驚恐萬分，渾身散發(fā)著臭味而且極度饑餓的幸存者們常常被安慰說等待他們的是新鮮的空氣和食物。他們并不知道附近煙囪里的滾滾濃煙卻是那些先來的人的尸體被火化時冒出的濃煙。
幻想很快就破滅了，警衛(wèi)們挑選出能夠進行重體力勞動的人，而老人孩子們則被直接送進毒氣室。在集中營中這一過程被稱為“分選”。
“分選”出來的幸存者們一點都不知道他們的家人和朋友的遭遇。他們的衣服、財物和身份證明統(tǒng)統(tǒng)被沒收，納粹在他們的手臂上紋上號碼，并發(fā)給每人一個湯碗和一把湯勺。
囚犯們穿著特制的條紋獄服，列隊前往勞工營。勞工營的大門上醒目地寫著“勞動獲得自由”的巨大標(biāo)語——納粹犬儒主義的集中體現(xiàn)。
木頭或磚瓦搭建的簡易房舍里塞滿了囚犯，他們每天在建筑（工地）或工廠工作12小時。好一些的在廚房或辦公室工作。
在無數(shù)不眠之夜和長時間高強度工作之后，囚犯們還被迫進行幾小時的露天點名。死囚的尸體就堆放在活人旁邊以待清點。
加上流行疫病，1942至1943年期間每月囚犯的死亡率達到19%至25%。
（中國日報網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2005-01-24 11:08