(26 Jan 1995) English/Nat
Survivors of the Auschwitz death camp have returned 50 years after the Soviet army
freed them towards the end of the second world war.
APTV has visited the camp with two of the survivors - one says it will be his last visit there.
Ariel Yalhallon from Israel can still find the bunk he slept in at Auschwitz, crammed in three-deep along with scores of others. They all had to agree to turn over at the same time.
He didn't talk about his ordeal at the camp for 40 years. He was brutally beaten there and used as slave labour. However, in recent years he has started to return with youth groups to tell his story.
But he says this visit, to mark the 50th anniversary, will be his last.
SOUNDBITE:
"This time is like closing the circle, I don't believe I will be coming any more with groups, I don't have the psychological or mental forces to do it again. I think here I am closing the circle of the 50th anniversary and maybe I will go to other destinations but not to Auschwitz anymore."
SUPER CAPTION: Ariel Yalhallon
Ariel says the huts were originally built as stables, and then commandeered by the Nazis for the extermination camp. Most people who came to Auschwitz never came out alive. Most went straight from selection to the gas chambers at nearby Birkenau. Those who could work, like Ariel, were lucky - just tattooed and used as slaves.
Stella Madej came to Auschwitz as a young girl of 14. She was transported there in late 1944, even though she'd been on Oskar Schindler's list.
SOUNDBITE:
"Even though I was a young girl, I realised that we are prepared to die. We didn't see any chance to get out with our lives."
SUPER CAPTION: Stella Madej
However, she did survive the brutal beatings and severe illness which left her an invalid for the rest of her life.
She doesn't agree with a major political anniversary celebration, but wanted to attend today's Jewish prayers.
Her thoughts are with the 1.5 (m) million people who died in the camp, and the families they never had.
SOUNDBITE;
"I feel very much pity about the people that shouldn't be killed and there should be many of them with life, with family, many with grandchildren."
SUPER CAPTION: Stella Madej
There were more than three (m) million Jews in Poland before the war - now there are just 7-thousand.
Today, Jews from all over the world gathered at Auschwitz to remember them.
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