She survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and stood up for those persecuted by the Nazi regime until the end - as a spokeswoman and musician. Esther Bejarano has
now died
at the age of 96
.
Most recently she lived in Hamburg, where she visited two SPIEGEL editors last year.
They talked to her about their memories of Auschwitz and the danger posed by the AfD.
The article first appeared on January 23, 2020.
Read the video transcript here
Esther Bejarano:
“Everything is in my head. I see every time, I always see what we have experienced. Yes, very, very bad things. "
How do you describe real horror, absolute horror?
Esther Bejarano tries.
Over and over again she tells her incredible story.
During the Second World War, the National Socialists brought the Jewish woman to Auschwitz.
Today she works to ensure that people do not forget what happened around 80 years ago.
It sensitizes, it warns.
She thinks that is particularly important these days.
Because the current development in Germany worries the 95-year-old tremendously.
Esther Bejarano:
“Nazis are walking around on the street with slogans that they made many, many years ago, yes, with Hitler salutes and all sorts of things. The AfD marches with them. Yes, that's terrible. We have Pegida. We have the NPD. For those who have experienced this, this is really ... You can't describe how bad it is for us. "
In 1943 Bejarano came to Auschwitz, where he was forced to work hard.
Prisoner number 41948. But she was lucky and was allowed to join a girls' orchestra.
She actually played the piano, but was supposed to play the accordion - and without further ado taught herself the instrument.
It became her salvation.
As part of the orchestra, she enjoyed special protection and no longer had to work hard.
And yet Bejarano experienced her worst moments when she performed with the orchestra.
Especially when new transports arrived.
Esther Bejarano:
“And these trains that arrived on these tracks. These people who were on these trains were all gassed. These were trains that went into the gas chamber. And we stood there and had to play. And the people in there - I'm sure of it - thought that where the music was playing, it couldn't be that bad. That was the Nazi tactic. It was so hopeless. You couldn't do anything, absolutely nothing. "
And again and again she had to watch what the guards in the concentration camp were capable of.
Esther Bejarano:
“For example there was this terrible labor leader Moll, who with his two dogs - he had such shepherd dogs - they were of course trained to bite people to death. Awful. He always went down the camp road with the dogs. And if he didn't like any of the faces of the people who stood there, the prisoners, or he was happy that he was able to set the dogs on them again, then he did it. And the dogs mauled people. "
Bejarano stayed in Auschwitz for about six months and was then transferred to Ravensbrück.
In 1945 she was able to flee when the National Socialists had to evacuate the concentration camp because the Allies were getting closer and closer.
That was 75 years ago - and yet Bejarano thinks every day of the terrible pictures, of the atrocities of the National Socialists.
Esther Bejarano:
“ You can't get that out of your head. You have to, you have to understand that too. It's very difficult for me to keep telling the same thing over and over again. But I do this because I know it's so terribly, so terribly important. But it's no small matter for me. It's always difficult to tell a story. "
Still she does.
Bejarano goes to schools and gives readings.
And to this day she continues to rely on her greatest passion: music.
She saved her life in Auschwitz, now music is a good means of sharing her experiences: Bejarano regularly takes to the stage with the left-wing rap band Microphone Mafia and also conveys her clear message there: That history should never repeat itself .
She is all the more concerned about the parallels between now and then - the brutalization of language that she observes among AfD officials.
And even if European countries refuse to take in refugees, then she recognizes a pattern from back then.
Esther Bejarano:
“And I'll tell you: That was exactly the same back then. For example my sister, she fled to Switzerland. She was sent back to German soil and she was murdered. Today it's a little different, but it's similar. "
It is all the more important now not to remain silent.
Bejarano wants more humanity and demands that the federal government take countermeasures.
And she combines her demands with a clear warning.
Esther Bejarano:
“I know what will come next if it goes on like this and if you don't do anything about it. And if these right-wing parties get even stronger, then I see nothing. Because then exactly the same thing can happen that happened back then. "