The Christian Association of Auschwitz Families appeals to the highest Polish authorities so that June 14 is explicitly dedicated to the memory of Polish victims of German lagers. It would be a due gesture to remember the unimaginable price paid by Poles during the Second World War.

From 1933 to 1945, the German government had 20 thousand different camps (in German lager) built, located in many European countries. The camps were of different kinds: concentration camps, extermination camps, forced labor camps, etc. The victims of the lagers amount to approximately 11 million people, of whom 6 million were Jews. The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was the largest extermination camp; therefore, great importance has been given to the day of its liberation, January 27. For years, this day has been commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, remembering the Jewish victims of German concentration camps and the industry of death. June 2, in turn, is dedicated to the memory of the extermination of the Romani and Sinti. The date of January 27 is not accidental: it is the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the largest German extermination camp.

In Poland, another day is also celebrated: the National Remembrance Day for the Victims of German Concentration and Extermination Camps. A precise date was chosen to do so, June 14. It is a symbolic date because on this day in 1940, the first transport of 728 Polish political prisoners arrived at Auschwitz from the city of Tarnów, in southeastern Poland. These people were not brought to the camp by chance. From the very beginning, the Germans planned to annihilate the Polish elites, destroy the intelligentsia, the clergy, social activists, and all those who could have organized future resistance against the German occupier. In total, the Germans deported about 140 thousand non-Jewish Poles to Auschwitz.

It must be remembered that it was only in 1942 that the mass deportations of Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp began. This camp then became – based on Himmler’s directives of 1941 – a crucial element of the machinery to implement the plan for the extermination of European Jews. Within this genocidal plan, a primary role was assigned to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. A substantial part of the Jews who died in that lager were Polish citizens.

Unfortunately, the name of the Remembrance Day of June 14 does not indicate in any way that Poles constituted a highly important national group exterminated by the Germans. For this reason, the Christian Association of Auschwitz Families active in Poland has launched an initiative to change the name of the Day, directly indicating the Polish victims. This is important because today the history of the Auschwitz camp is often referred to only a single national group.

Krzysztof Utkowski, president of the Association, emphasizes that the goal is to ensure that the Polish perspective is not lost in an increasingly simplified narrative, in which Auschwitz is reduced solely to a symbol of the Holocaust. This is, naturally, its fundamental dimension, but not the only one.

“From the beginning, the camp was a place of torture for thousands of Poles who were deported there for their activities in favor of independence, for having helped others, for remaining faithful to their convictions, or simply for being Polish. The Germans built this camp with Poles in mind as early as 1940” – points out Krzysztof Utkowski.

As noted by MP Jaroslaw Sellin, former Polish Deputy Minister of Culture:

“It is natural that nations and communities want to guard the memory of their own victims. It is difficult not to wonder why Poles should not have a day that reminds the world, directly and unequivocally, that they too were one of the main groups persecuted and exterminated by the Third Reich.”

But while remembering the victims of Auschwitz, it would also be right to remember that this extermination camp was not just a death factory. It was also a place of extraordinary heroism. There, Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe gave his life for a fellow prisoner. There operated Captain Witold Pilecki, voluntarily allowing himself to be imprisoned in the camp to form a resistance movement and reveal to the world the truth about German crimes. There, the midwife Stanisława Leszczyńska, risking her own life, delivered babies and saved the dignity of women condemned to death.

As Professor Mieczysław Ryba, member of the board of the Institute of National Remembrance, emphasizes:

“It is not a matter of depriving anyone of the right to their own memory, but it is difficult to understand why Poles, who represented one of the largest groups of victims of German terror, have not established a commemorative day dedicated to them.”

Establishing a Day for Polish victims would also have enormous international significance.

“For many people around the world, it would be a clear signal that occupied Poland was not just a place on whose territory the Germans built extermination camps, but also a nation that suffered unimaginable losses there” – argues Professor Ryba.

As Krzysztof Utkowski emphasizes, such a proposal does not exclude anyone, but on the contrary:

“It is an attempt to pay due tribute to those who for years have remained in the shadow of a great history. A nation that is unable to remember and honor the sacrifices of its own children will, sooner or later, allow others to write its history.”

To establish such a day, a law is required, which is why they want to collect 100,000 signatures to launch a legislative initiative.