American Views Abroad

 
'To the long list of what separates the United States and Europe these days, add the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps to be marked Thursday in a solemn ceremony that will bring together almost all of Europe's most important leaders, but not President George W. Bush.' www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/25/news/camp.html.

This front page article reports on how many veteran intellectuals think 'that with the passing of time, Auschwitz has come to play an increasingly important role in forging a kind of European identity almost separate from the United States.' Some 'go so far as to see the liberation of this Nazi death camp as one foundation of the European Union.'

Last Sunday a leading German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, chose to publish an Italian journalist's report of an interview with one of the few surviving Red Army soldiers who first entered Auschwitz very early on that day in 1945. Jakow Wintschenko, who was 19 then, recalls how, on first entering the camps and having no idea what he was actually witnessing, he first thought those standing opposite him were ghosts and he was suddenly afraid he had been shot or was even dead. He had been drafted at age 15, given a bayonet and some hand grenades -- his army was so poorly equipped that only one out of 15 soldiers even had a bayonet --- and without further training spent four years in a brutal war feeling despair, hunger and mortal fear. At first it was very difficult for him to come to terms with what he saw there. His immediate reaction was not to want to believe it. But then he realized that to forget and not remember would be even worse. At the heart of the report is the fact that as a common soldier, he does not recall the liberation of the camps as anything heoric and on that January 27th it was not at all understood by him or the others that a certain boundary had been crossed that day from which there would be no turning back.

His unit had to move on. Later that evening he heard from others that only after the Soviet flag was flying over the camps did a few children cautiously start to come out proclaiming freedom. He, however, found neither life nor hope there. That night he felt compelled to wash his uniform. He'll be attending the ceremonies on Thursday along with two other comrades.

The original article was written by Giampaolo Visetti for La Repubblica, Rome.

- posted by Gloria @ 2:20 PM