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Reporter’s Notebook: History, Volunteering preserves memory and responsibility memories lead to life in Auschwitz and betters community ahead of Oct. 27
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A railcar that transported prisoners to the Nazi concentration and extermination camp rests in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Photo by Adam Reinherz By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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ŚWIĘCIM, Poland — There’s life in Auschwitz — although, by design, observing it was uncomfortable and inspiring. Between Oct. 7-10, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum welcomed 18 journalists to tour facilities, speak with director Piotr M. A. Cywiński and access spaces closed to the general public. “My job the next two days is to make your life a little more complicated,” Pawel Sawicki told the group on Oct. 8. Sawicki, a journalist who has led more than 1,000 groups through Auschwitz, oversees the museum’s press office. The “History, Memory and Responsibility” seminar, he said, was a lead-up to commemoration. On Jan. 27, the institution will mark 80 years since the German Nazi extermination camp’s liberation. Heads of state, delegations and 900 journalists are expected to attend. With war waging between Russia and Ukraine, and in the Middle East, the museum anticipates some parties may try to steal the stage. “I will certainly not let this anniversary of liberation become a political event,” Cywiński said. Commemorating the liberation, he continued, is about honoring survivors and promoting remembrance. Defining the latter underpinned the seminar.
Opening Auschwitz’s doors
Between Oct. 8-9, seminar attendees spent nearly 14 hours at Auschwitz. Established by the Nazis in 1940, the concentration and extermination camp consisted of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Auschwitz III-Monowitz and almost 50 sub-camps. Dates and facts fail to yield comprehensive understanding; survivor testimony helps, Sawicki said. Upon reaching the site in Auschwitz I where roll call occurred, Sawicki invoked the words of Nate Leipziger: “We used to joke that they counted us like gold and treated us like dirt.” After entering a barrack and observing a dehumanizing latrine, Sawicki read the survivor’s memory of the space: “On each side of it stood three-tiered bunks. My father and I got a middle bunk, second-last from the end. As we sat on the bunk together, my initial shock passed and I was trembling with fear and anger, tears streaming down my face. The full impact of what we were told about people being gassed to death hit me. I had never heard about that in the ghetto. There was talk about people being killed but no one mentioned how — and why. My tears ran uncontrollably. I was still shaking when my father asked what was the matter with me. He told me to pull myself together. I asked him how they could kill Please see Auschwitz, page 10
A volunteer cleans a cemetery to commemorate Oct. 27, 2018.
Photo courtesy of 10.27 Healing Partnership
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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ix years after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the community will remember and honor those who were murdered in an antisemitic attack by performing acts of kindness. Hours before the commemoration, several spaces are welcoming volunteers on Oct. 27. The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh is hosting a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at both its Squirrel Hill and South Hills branches. Facilitated by Vitalant, the drive is in memory of Dan Stein and Irving Younger. Also at the JCC in Squirrel Hill, from 9:30 Please see Volunteering, page 11
Chag Sameach!
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