Holocaust commemoration in Auschwitz

This video says about itself:

Behind the Scenes of Auschwitz Instagram video

27 January 2015

Steven Spielberg on ‎Auschwitz 70th Anniversary: “During this time of remembrance, efforts like these are vital to raising awareness of the Holocaust among young people and the importance of fighting prejudice and intolerance wherever it occurs.

As part of our partnership with the Shoah Foundation to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we made a video for Instagram about our visit to the camp.

Although the video is only 15 seconds long, it was meticulously crafted and edited. Using only an iPhone, our team captured striking images of the camp, recreating frame by frame some of the historic photos of Auschwitz that have become part of the public imagination.

”The video tells the story of one of the camp’s survivors, Roman Kent. It begins with a picture of Kent in his youth, and goes on to show the camp through “his eyes.” It ends with images of him now, 70 years later.

By Ben Chacko:

They lost their lives – we must honour them

Wednesday 28th January 2015

Holocaust survivors pay tribute to airbrushed out Soviet liberators 70 years after the Red Army freed Auschwitz

THREE hundred Auschwitz survivors returned to the nazis’ largest death camp yesterday to mark 70 years since its liberation by the Red Army.

Politicians from around the world marked Holocaust Memorial Day in memory of the six million Jews who were slaughtered by the nazi regime alongside Roma, gay and disabled people, Polish and Soviet prisoners of war and others.

But campaigners warned that fascism was once again on the rise in Europe — increasingly backed by the same Western states who sent representatives to Auschwitz yesterday.

French President Francois Hollande made an emotional plea for Jews to regard France as their homeland — but said nothing of his Prime Minister Manuel Valls’s public call for all French Roma to be deported.

And Britain was represented at the ceremony by Eric Pickles, who was condemned by the High Court this month for illegally discriminating against Roma and travellers.

Camp survivors expressed dismay at Poland’s decision not to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin when it was the Soviet Union that freed them seven decades ago.

Eighty-one-year-old Paula Lebovics remembered being a starving 11-year-old who was hugged and rocked by a Russian soldier “with tears in his eyes” as Soviet troops uncovered the horrific complex, where over a million Jews were gassed to death.

“Putin should be here,” she said. “They were our liberators.”

Fellow survivor Eva Mozes Kor agreed, saying that she had no sympathy with Mr Putin’s politics but “from a moral and historical perspective he should be here.”

Munich resident Natan Grossmann, another Auschwitz survivor, said: “They put their lives on the line to free us. They lost their lives and we should honour them.”

The failure to invite the Russian leader follows a concerted effort to rewrite the history of the second world war and as the European Union backs fascist militias in Ukraine.

Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna sparked outrage when he claimed “the Ukrainians” liberated the camp in a bid to minimise Russia’s role.

Ukraine’s current government has armed and deployed openly neonazi units like the Azov battalion, which claims to be on a “crusade of the white races” against “semite-led subhumanity,” in an attempt to crush the anti-fascist resistance forces in the country’s east. …

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk — who has previously referred to Russians as “subhuman” — claimed in Germany earlier this month that Russia had “invaded Ukraine and Germany” in the second world war, while the far-right parties of the Euromaidan movement openly revere nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists murdered thousands of Jews and Poles during the Holocaust. …

A spokesman for anti-racist group Hope Not Hate told the Star: “Seventy years on from the liberation of Auschwitz and the horrendous images of the dead and dying in the camps seem hard to erase.

“Our recent report State of Hate revealed that organised far-right groups in the UK are having a hard time of things at the moment, suffering splits, defections and losing electoral support to Ukip.

“That said, the conditions have been fertile for populist and racist parties for some time, so it is wise we remain vigilant to that threat.”

On Tuesday, a public ceremony was held at Auschwitz to mark the 70th anniversary of the concentration camp’s liberation by elements of the Soviet Union’s Red Army on January 27, 1945. The very name of this Nazi death camp in southern Poland is synonymous with the greatest crimes and horrors of the 20th century, a byword for capitalist barbarism in its most extreme form: here.

Britain: David Cameron paid tribute yesterday to Soviet troops and civilians who helped defeat the nazis after a Tory MP called for their sacrifice to be remembered by Britain. David Tredinnick recalled at Prime Minister’s questions how the British army freed 60,000 inmates from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. But, almost 70 years to the day since the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp, the Bosworth MP added that Mr Cameron should recognise their effort: here.

The rape and sexual abuse of Jewish women during the Holocaust have been long overlooked. But when researchers probed, stories began to emerge as if they were old photographic film waiting for the right chemicals: here.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops, German President Joachim Gauck made a commemorative speech on Tuesday in parliament. The sermonizing tone of the former East German clergyman was difficult to bear. But even worse was the cynicism with which Gauck used the Holocaust memorial day to legitimise the reemergence of German militarism: here.

John Pilger: New threats of war and fascism: here.