The courage of the Poles

On January 27 recurs the Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camps. The Day is commemorated in Italy since the year 2000 – by the UN since 2005 – to honour the victims of the Nazi era and of the Shoah, and to commemorate those who risked their lives to save the persecuted.Historians have not succeeded – and perhaps they never will succeed – to determine the exact number of victims of Auschwitz. That number ranges from 1 and a half to 4 million and it testifies to the absurdity of the abomination committed to a greater extent against the Jews, but also against many other peoples. Identification of the prisoners – who instead of their names and surnames only had a number tattooed on their arms – has been ongoing since 1945. Only a few days ago the press reported the news of the identification of prisoner number 4267. He was Antoni Kocjan, an officer in the Polish National Army (Armia Krajowa) tasked with discovering the secrets of German bombs V1 and V2, later used in the bombing of London. A few months before his death, John Paul II wrote a message on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz that was read by his envoy, Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, whose parents and siblings died in those same extermination camps: "In speaking of the victims of Auschwitz, I cannot fail to recall that, in the midst of that unspeakable concentration of evil, there were also heroic examples of commitment to good. Certainly there were many persons who were willing, in spiritual freedom, to endure suffering and to show love, not only for their fellow prisoners, but also for their tormentors. Many did so out of love for God and for man; others in the name of the highest spiritual values. Their attitude bore clear witness to a truth which is often expressed in the Bible: Even though man is capable of evil, and at times boundless evil, evil itself will never have the last word. In the very abyss of suffering, love can triumph. The witness to this love shown in Auschwitz must never be forgotten".Over the past months, for the first time after over 70 years since they were first put into writing, the reports drawn up by cavalry lieutenant Witold Pilecki, a Polish officer who voluntarily asked to be imprisoned in Auschwitz in 1941 to bear witness to the atrocities committed in the concentration camps, were published in the United States. A few years ago the story of Pilecki (Auschwitz prisoner No 4859) inspired Marco Patricelli’s book titled "The Volunteer". At the time of the war his reports, as well as those by Jan Kozielewski, better known as Jan Karski, which instructed to make known abroad the situation in Poland and especially the reality of the extermination camps – on two occasions, he insinuated himself into the ghetto of Warsaw – were not considered credible.In 1941 in Poland, despite the threat of immediate execution looming over all those who helped the Jews, arose an underground organization called "Zegota" whose task was to provide support to the Jews. Former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (Auschwitz prisoner No. 4427) in 1963 at the request of the Institute Yad Vashem testified to the work of Zegota on the territory of Nazi-occupied Poland. "I survived when so many of my Polish and Jewish acquaintances perished. I must share my witness – Bartoszewski writes in the introduction of Zegota’s book that is being released this week – so that the memory of the generous people will not be lost, lest we forget the reason why sometimes it is worthwhile risking our own life"."I am the last survivor of a group of 11 people who during the Nazi occupation hid for 14 months in the sewers of Lviv – says today Krystyna Chiger, a 77 year old dentist who now lives in New York. – Those who were saved, and I with them, owe their lives to Leopold Socha, Stefan Jerzy Wroblewski and Kowalow. These three sewage workers, along with their families and risking their lives, saved us from the Holocaust. Without their help and their sacrifice we would not have been able to survive and we would have been murdered by the Nazis along with many others". Krystyna Chiger is the protagonist of the film by Polish director Agnieszka Holland coming out in theaters across Italy in the next few days. It’s just one of many stories of World War II whose main theme is the horror, that should never be forgotten. At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, the 6.339 Poles recognized as Righteous among the nations for having helped Jews survive the Shoah constitute the largest group. Italians are 524 out of a total of more than 24 thousand people. It is estimated that approximately 6 million Jews were killed during the Second World War.