"Life is stronger than anything else"

Created: 05/01/2022, 16:51

A warm welcome: At the Death March commemoration, we managed to welcome three more surviving contemporary witnesses, Erich Richard Finsches, Jean Lafaurie and Abba Naor (from left).

In the background: the death march memorial by Hubertus von Pilgrim.

© Reinhard-Dietmar Sponder

As part of the celebrations for the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, the victims of the death march were also commemorated - with moving words.

Dachau – In her moving speech at the commemoration of the victims of the death march south from the Dachau concentration camp, which took place as part of the celebrations for the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp, Dana Bloch (49) reported on her grandfather Abba Naor (94), the Vice President of the International Dachau Committee.

She asked him how he was able to survive all the horrors from the Dachau subcamp Kaufering and the death march.

Abba Naor's answer was: "Life is stronger than anything else."

One had to secure this life, survival, from one day to the next, Naor continued in his remarks at the death march memorial.

And the grandfather gave his granddaughter another insight: It is important to always stay strong.

Dana Bloch, on the other hand, stated that her grandfather is still strong and, despite his age, drives from school to school and tells his story, her story.

So he is still her hero today.

When asked how he liked his granddaughter's speech, Abba Naor said that young people sometimes exaggerate a bit.

Then he thanked the former head of the concentration camp memorial, Barbara Distel: "I'm here because of her.

She was the first to invite us (survivors, editor's note).

We didn't want to come."

But she didn't give up.

Naor: "That's how we've come to this day." All of that gave him courage - and that's how he lived to be 94 years old.

"We've made a lot of friends.

We are the little country of Israel.

we need friends

We cannot do without that.”

Mayor Florian Hartmann laid a wreath at the death march memorial, which the artist Hubertus von Pilgrim created 21 years ago.

© Reinhard-Dietmar Sponder

Abba Naor, who lives in Rechovot near Tel Aviv, was one of three surviving former concentration camp prisoners who came to Dachau this year.

The other two were Jean Lafaurie from France and Erich Richard Fisches from Vienna.

The latter also took the floor and warned: “Watch what the governments tell you.

You must learn, learn and learn again to always stand for peace and freedom in life.”

Another speaker was Ioanna Taigachewa.

She doesn't really understand what is happening on May 9 in her native Russia at the upcoming celebrations to commemorate the atrocities of Nazi barbarism and World War II, when the date is used to justify what is currently happening in Ukraine, said Taigacheva, who comes from St. Petersburg and works in the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation on the grounds of the concentration camp memorial as part of the Reconciliation Campaign.

You can find more current news from the district of Dachau at Merkur.de/Dachau.

Max Kronawitter spoke about his film on the death march.

His work was shown after the commemoration at the memorial in the Adolf-Hölzel-Haus on Ernst-Reuter-Platz.

Like Hubertus von Pilgrim, the creator of the memorials all over Upper Bavaria, he was concerned with giving the anonymous people of these death marches a face, breathing a soul into them, Kronawitter said.

He also wanted to let those who had died in the meantime have their say.

Because otherwise all the culture of remembrance is just an empty formula, said the filmmaker.

Because otherwise all the culture of remembrance is just an empty formula.

The rarer the contemporary witnesses become, the more important these captured testimonials are.

Every small gesture of humanity is important, Kronawitter continued, even if it is not crowned with success.

"Guilt loads whoever looks away."

Three police officers didn't look away when a disturber wanted to shout loudly between them from a distance.

First they reassured him and then probably established his identity.

"77 years have passed since the end of the Nazi regime," said Mayor Florian Hartmann during his speech.

"77 years since the end of millions of murders in concentration and extermination camps as the final consequence of an inhuman, racist ideology." The memorial to the death march should always remind where anti-Semitism, racism and nationalism led back then.

"The horrific death marches marked the end of this policy of extermination in the concentration camps."

But despite all the warnings from the survivors, as well as decades of education and politics of remembrance, our world is still vulnerable, according to the mayor.

"In recent years, we have experienced an increase in right-wing populism, right-wing extremism and racism across Europe and around the world." And: "In the middle of Europe we have been confronted with a nationalist war of aggression for two months.

"

Hartmann continued: “Has gratitude made us comfortable for three quarters of a century of maturing and mature democracy?” The mayor took up a thought from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

And gave the answer himself: “My appeal is that we must not become lazy.

And we must not give up either.” There is no end to the struggle with our history and the remembrance.

"Without memory we lose our future."

Hartmann thanked the Dachau Death March Memorial initiative, which has been organizing the commemoration for more than 20 years, and the Ewald-Huber family, who this year provided the musical framework for the commemoration with compositions by deceased concentration camp prisoners from Theresienstadt.