From Auschwitz To Treblinka: ‘Never Again’ Is The Unmistakable Lesson Of Holocaust 

Arbeit Macht Frei!

Waves of youth silently pass through the gate that symbolised and immortalised the Holocaust in numerous documentaries, films, exhibitions and paintings. Only a few decades ago, thousands of Jews and others walked through that deceptive banner but never returned alive. They were brought from different parts of Poland and other countries occupied by the Nazi army and were shot, burnt, gassed and cremated.

As one passes by the buildings at the main camp and the barbed-fences across the vast auxiliary concentration camp at Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz-II), one cannot but reflect on the burden of history. Hasty efforts to destroy the vast camp are testimony to the depths to which the civilisation had plunged only a few decades ago.

The contrasts between Auschwitz and Treblinka are unmistakable. If the former is an open area, the Treblinka site is shrouded among deep forests and tall pine trees. Unlike Auschwitz which has the remnants of the atrocities, Treblinka camp was completely destroyed by the Nazis. The memorial that stands today at Treblinka evokes the memory of sad history and tries to connect with the past. Despite the mild and cloudy weather and impending rains and rainbows, even birds do not disturb the visitors. This gives one the space, time and silence for calmer reflection and introspection. The guide who proclaims her moral but non-religious lifestyle informs that visitors to Treblinka are rare. A less crowded Auschwitz and crowded Treblinka would not be in sync; it would have transformed the former in a ghost town and the latter into a picnic spot.

While central and eastern Europe is littered with them, Nazis established some of the most notorious labour and concentration camps in Poland. Their recognition and remembrance by the Polish society were marred by the ideological divide of the Cold War and internal turmoil during the Communist era. It was only after its transition to democracy since 1989 one could notice an open and greater Polish recognition of its troubled and tormented history under the Nazi Germany. 

Though these camps were located and operated on the Polish soil, they were anything but Polish. Indeed a large number of Poles were also killed in these camps. Therefore, the expression “Polish death camps” evokes considerable resentment within the country due to its ahistoric nature. Last week, the Polish government approved a bill that seeks a prison term of up to three years to anyone using phrases like “Polish death camps” to refer to Auschwitz and other camps that the Nazi Germany established and operated in occupied Poland during the Second World War.

Passing through the ruins of the labour camps in Birkenau, one’s phonetic skills are tested and treated. The youth speak French, Spanish, Russian, German, Chinese, Korean and Hebrew and there were occasional exchanges in Arabic as well.  There were people from Asia as well as Africa and Latin America. Among the thousands of visitors one did not see or hear any Indians or people of Indian origin. This rekindles the remoteness of the Holocaust to India and its people even as one cannot miss Mein Kampf displayed prominently in many bookstalls, especially at railway stations.

Moreover, Indians do not figure in the four typologies of people who are commonly associated with the Holocaust, namely, perpetrators, victims, bystanders and rescuers. Far removed from the destruction of the European Jewry during the Second World War, the Indian nationalists were fighting liberation from the British and had little time or inclination to understand the depths and magnitude the Holocaust.

With rampant Holocaust denial and trivialisation, the presence of such a large number of youths at Auschwitz is a sign of hope. With dwindling number of survivors (Pope Francis met a few of them at the same venue a couple of days later), only these youth could carry forward the knowledge of the Holocaust and its unmistakable lesson: Never Again.

Note: All images used in this article belong to its writer, Prof. P R Kumaraswamy.