65 years later, Auschwitz survivor recounts his days at the death camp

Political and religious leaders from Israel and Poland turned up at the concentration camp where almost one million Jews were killed. The purpose of this visit to the death camp was to ensure that lessons learnt from the Holocaust are passed on to the posterity.

Remembering days of Holocaust
Alberto Israel arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp on Aug. 3, 1944. Before being transported to this concentration camp in Nazi-dominated Poland, Israel lived with his family in the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean.

On his visit to the same camp 65 years later, Israel recalls, “We knew it was an abattoir when we arrived. We could smell the melting flesh. We got there at 10 in the morning, and by 2 in the afternoon, my mother and father had been gassed."

"It's hard to explain how I feel," Israel adds. "I feel stress all over, my body shuts down, and I want to leave. But I must come back."

Israel has visited this death camp several times, but he says the experience has been traumatizing each time.

"Every trip is painful. Even last night, I couldn't sleep. I finally got out of bed at 4 a.m., had a coffee and tried to read. When I am alone, I still cry," he says and then rolled up his sleeve to show his identification number B-7394 still tattooed on his forearm.

Israel then strolls through the camp, looking over the meager bunker he once slept in. Next to the railroad tracks was the spot where Nazi segregated those who looked useful compared to others, who were then taken to the gas chambers. This is where he last saw his parents, Israel narrates.

Israel, who lost his two brothers at this death camp, says he survived only because he picked up German.

"It probably saved my life. If you didn't understand the SS and the Kapos [the prisoners who supervised work gangs] when they gave orders, then you risked death," he says.

Ghosts of the past and future
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said, “From this place, I swear as the leader of the Jewish people, never again shall we allow evil to hurt our people.”

Talking about the dangers posed by Iran, the Israeli President Shimon Peres labeled the Iranian government as a “fanatic regime” and sponsor of international terrorism.

At the 65th anniversary of the Holocaust, Peres said, “This day not only represents a memorial day for victims, not only the pangs of conscience of humankind in the face of the incomprehensible atrocity that took place, but also of the tragedy that derived from the procrastination in taking action.”

He claimed that Iran’s nuclear programme “threatens destruction” and poses “a danger to the entire world.”

Ronald Lauder was rescued from the gas chamber at the age of seven when his mother pushed him in a different row. Today, Lauder is the President of the World Jewish Congress.

“I believe another horror is coming to our world. I am talking about what is happening in Iran. We have a man who denies the Holocaust. We have a man who talks about the destruction of Israel,” he said.

Lauder went on to say, “Hitler had these same words and people did not take them seriously. We must take seriously what is happening with President Ahmadinejad. We must take seriously his threats and unless we do, we have a great deal of problems ahead. I only pray the free world will continue to fight against this tyrant.”