Never Forget: It is now 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

Source: Google images

So many stories, so little time left to tell them.

Today, Monday 27th January, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and is so poignant because so few survivors are alive to tell their first-hand accounts of what actually happened inside the world’s most notorious concentration camp.

Those left have shown enormous courage to confront their past and tell their stories, however painful. On the news this week, I was moved to see Rose Moskowitz, 94-year old grandmother of four, lighting a torch at the World Holocaust Forum in Yad Vashem, the memorial centre in Jerusalem, in memory of all those who died inside the camp, including her identical twin sister, Irka Roth. According to a newspaper article in The Times, the Jewish Roth sisters managed to forge papers and escape the attention of the Nazi authorities due to their vaguely Aryan features. Unluckily, Irka Roth was denounced to the Gestapo and murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, but her sister fled to rural Bavaria, posing as a Polish Christian.

“The concept of ‘Never Forget’ is more important today than ever”, Rose Moskowitz said in the article. “Racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism are coming back stronger. Political parties are openly promoting nationalism and hatred. Even the governments and democratic institutions are doing little to stop it. This is the type of environment that allowed anti-Semitism to spread like wildfire.”

It’s hard to imagine that so much hatred and denial still exists when learning more and more first-hand account stories such as Rose and Irka’s. The Times article highlighted a recent survey suggesting that 40 per cent of Germans between the ages of 18 and 34 knew either nothing or only a little about the mass murders in Auschwitz. Holocaust deniers are also spreading “revisionist myths” that the death toll was overstated, or that the Allies were largely to blame.

Today, Monday 27th January, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, when even more voices will be heard and their suffering remembered.

Untold stories of the Holocaust

And still, more stories are uncovered and being retold for new generations.

Like so many, I had no idea about the lengths the Nazis went to in flushing out Jews in their quest to exterminate them. That was until I came across the real hidden village (Het Verscholen Dorp), a purpose-built village of mainly underground huts that existed deep in the Veluwe woods. It was established and built by a close-knit local community who helped dozens of Jews to remain hidden from the Germans for nearly two years.

It was a story I wanted to tell the world. After extensive research and repeated visits to the village, I wrote my two novels The Hidden Village and Hidden in the Shadows.

I am currently writing my third novel in the series, “Untold WW2 Stories”. It too is a true story is based on real events that took place at Kamp Amersfoort, a Dutch concentration camp, that was every bit as brutal as Auschwitz. I had no idea this place existed until a chance visit in 2019 to the memorial site when I was privileged to learn about the stories of bravery, courage and death at the hands of the brutal Nazi regime. I’m sure many will never have heard of Kamp Amersfoort and I hope that my forthcoming book will help to keep the memories of this place alive.