Survivors’ story is our responsibility

I’m in Poland to attend the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz. It has been an absolute honour and privilege to represent the South African Jewish community at this solemn event, alongside South African Jewish Board of Deputies Vice-President Mary Kluk. Dignitaries from across the world, including King Charles III and leaders from Germany, Ukraine, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, and others, have come here to pay tribute to both the survivors and the millions of innocent victims who were murdered. We have come together to reaffirm the dual pledges: “We Remember” and “Never Again”.

Yet, what’s most noticeable is the immense dignity and presence of the remaining survivors. It’s impossible to imagine how they must feel to be back at the evil site where they suffered so terribly, but, old and frail as they are, they came to commemorate their liberation, grieve, and with immense bravery, share their stories. I salute them all – the ones who came, the ones who, for various reasons, couldn’t join us, and the ones who have sadly passed on.

I’m writing this column in the car on the way back from a further visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. How do I find the words to speak in the face of the unspeakable? Yet find the words I must. We have a duty to find our voices and raise them on behalf of the 1.3 million souls, of whom 1.1 million were Jews, who were murdered in that place. Even 80 years later, the air still reeks of evil. With the images of the destroyed gas chambers and crematoria so fresh in my mind, it’s hard to believe that we live in a world that seeks to deny, minimise, or exploit the six million dead in the Shoah for political agendas.

As a professor at a university, I couldn’t help but reflect on how universities were among the first places for Hitler’s Nazi ideology to take root. I was particularly chilled to hear of a PhD – a PHD! – written on the waste represented by not removing Jews’ gold teeth after their murder. Intellect, rationality, and education won’t protect us from such evil ideologies. Only compassion and recognition of our common humanity.

The number of Shoah survivors has always been painfully small, and now, time has done its work, and those who remain are even fewer. I want to say to our beautiful, brave survivors in South Africa and around the world that their stories will live on. As long as we live, we’ll teach them to our children, and we’ll ensure that they teach them to theirs, forming an unending chain of memory. We carry this responsibility. It’s our steadfast commitment. Never Again.

• Listen to Charisse Zeifert on Jewish Board Talk, 101.9 ChaiFM, every Friday from 12:00 to 13:00.