I choose to remember.
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
To remember or not… that is the question.
As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this week, the children have been heavily on my mind. Can we gloss over their fates because it is just too painful for us to remember? Forgetting, after all, would be so much easier. But I’ve carried them all week, struggling to write this post, and I know in my heart that I can’t ignore them.
On January 25, 1945, when Auschwitz was liberated, 700 children were found among the prisoners. About half were Jewish, and the others Roma, Sinti, Russian, Polish. They were terribly ill with tuberculosis and dysentery, half-starved, and weak as lambs. And these were the handful who had arrived only weeks before.
Overall, 232,000 children were sent to Auschwitz. About 23,000 of those were registered in the camp, meaning that more than 200,000 were killed on arrival. Those registered were used as laborers, for medical experimentation, and as propaganda ploys in “family camps”. Additionally about 700 babies were born in Auschwitz, most murdered immediately, but at random intervals some were left with their mothers for short intervals. God bless these poor mothers in unimaginable conditions with no diapers, no food, no nothing for their precious newborns.
Conditions for children at Auschwitz were no different than for adults. They were systematically starved and beaten, surviving freezing cold as best they could wearing nothing but rags. But there were mothers there, not necessarily their own, but surrogates who held and sang and comforted as best they could. May the memories of these unknown mamas be blessed forever.
There is nothing left to say, no way to make it better. But I do remember, this week especially – after all, it’s not really about how hard this is for me or you.
(Drawing by unknown artist. I ran across it 5 years ago and it has stayed powerfully with me.)