Celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Flossenbürg: The memory of the victims of Nazism lives on in the stories of the survivors and their descendants
On Sunday, 27 April a commemorative ceremony was held on the grounds of the memorial to the former concentration camp in Flossenbürg, Germany to honor the memory of the victims of the Nazi regime. The event was held on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by the US Army.
Roughly 1,000 guests – diplomats, eyewitnesses to this history and their families, political representatives, and representatives of the armed forces – commemorated the murdered and the survivors. The ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Roma and Sinti communities from the Czech Republic, a civil society member of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs, Rudolf Murka, and pastor Matěj Nový.
The camp was in operation from 1938 and hard labor was performed by the prisoners in a nearby granite quarry. That quarry was still being commercially exploited until very recently.
Only now, after years of effort, has the quarry become part of the memorial, together with the stairs up which the prisoners dragged meter-long boulders. One hundred thousand children, men, and women passed through Flossenbürg and its satellite camps until 1945, when it was liberated by units of the 90th and 97th infantry divisions of the US Army on 23 April; at least 30,000 prisoners died in the inhumane conditions there.
Several days prior to the liberation of the camp, members of the SS managed to force approximately 15,000 prisoners from the main camp and its satellites onto different death marches. Rudolf Murka, Sr. underwent one such march.
Along with almost 900 other pitiful prisoners, Murka, Sr. set out on 16 April 1945 from the satellite camp in Johanngeorgenstadt. The Nazis had imprisoned other members of the Murka family there as well – Zdeněk Herák and Miroslav, Ladislav and Josef Murka.
They experienced extreme suffering during the three weeks it took them to reach Theresienstadt. Of that original group of prisoners who left Johanngeorgenstadt, only slightly more than 20 survivors arrived at the liberation site on 6 May.
On the eve of this year’s annual commemoration at the Flossenbürg concentration camp memorial, an extraordinary gathering of survivors, their family members, and guests from more than one country took place in the Bavarian town of Weiden. The ceremonial reception at the Max-Reger-Halle was organized by the Bavarian state government as an expression of respect to those who, despite their advanced age, are tirelessly sharing their testimonies and contributing to the preservation of historical memory.
Among those present were prominent figures imprisoned in Flossenbürg – Josef Salomonovič, Leon Weintraub, Shelomo Selinger, and Leszek Żukowski – direct eyewitnesses who regularly participate in commemorative events and whose presence makes them extraordinarily powerful and authentic. The reception was attended by the Bavarian state Finance Minister Albert Füracker and was held in a friendly and deeply moving atmosphere.
An important moment of the evening was, for instance, the meeting between the Czech descendants of those imprisoned in the camp with the daughter of an American soldier, recently deceased, who was part of the liberation of the concentration camps. The father of Matěj Nový was one of the survivors found by American units in the Buchenwald satellite camp of Plömnitz in a life-threatening condition.
The director of the Flossenbürg Memorial, Jörg Skriebeleit, personally greeted each guest that evening in his or her native language, including in Czech. He also underscored the importance of eyewitnesses to the functioning of the memorial and their immeasurably important, inimitable role in mapping the atrocities of the past, as well as the irreplaceable value of their personal reflections.
It is only such eyewitnesses who can testify to the horrors they personally experienced, which are all but impossible to convey: “Their personal experiences and their narratives aid us with communicating this unbelievable suffering that cannot be shared and understood otherwise,” the director said, adding that such testimony in particular forms the basis of authentic reflection on this past and the warning such reflections imply for the future. The subsequent commemorative ceremony in the memorial acquired an even stronger dimension thanks to the presence of descendants of the prisoners and the eyewitnesses, who were a living reminder of humanity in the middle of brutality and cruelty, a call for the need to never forget what happened.
Representatives of the second and third generation of survivors’ descendants spoke during the commemorative ceremony for the very first time this year. In their remarks, the survivors’ descendants appealed to the importance of holding open dialogue, respect for difference, and tolerance as the basic values of a democratic society.
Ronen Katz, the son of former prisoner Bernard Katz, said that “peace starts with dialogue, recognition, and understanding of each other and of our mutual differences”. HIs words were spoken in the spirit of the call to build bridges between people of various backgrounds and different opinions. Emilia Rotstein, daughter of Leon Weintraub, thanked the administrators of the memorial for their efforts to preserve the horrors of the Holocaust in memory.
Rotstein expressed gratitude for the care given to the survivors and their families, for the preservation of their stories, and for the recognition of all victims of the Holocaust. She promised her father, whose “story and memories she carries in her heart,” that she would continue to defend democratic values and fight for them whenever they are challenged. In his speech, Bavarian State Prime Minister Markus Söder stressed that while “the horrors are over, the work with their memory is not,” and appealed to the duty to educate about the Holocaust and regularly visit the memorials at the former concentration camp sites as a means of preserving historical memory. After the ceremonial speeches, the human remains recently discovered during construction work on the grounds of the former concentration camp in Flossenbürg were buried.
Bavarian State Culture and Education Minister Anna Stolz reminded those gathered that totalitarian regimes intentionally trampled on human dignity by trying to destroy the dead so their imprisonment would be absolutely forgotten: “We are convinced that respect for human dignity necessarily includes reverent treatment of the person after death.” Descendants of the Holocaust victims of Romani origin then laid floral offerings at the memorial built to commemorate the Roma and Sinti murdered in the main camp, its satellite facilities, and on the death marches.
This event marking the anniversary of the liberation of the camp in Flossenbürg not only commemorated historical events, but also the importance of preserving the memory of the fates of these human beings, including the long-forgotten Romani victims of Nazism.
