Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe

“It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say”. Primo Levi, born in Turin, was a chemist. As a member of the Italian resistance, he was arrested in 1944 and deported to Auschwitz. He survived and began to write in 1945, directly after his return. In 1987, Primo Levi committed suicide. His stories and poems on the Holocaust today belong to world literature. Primo Levi’s story is just one of the thousands on display in this memorial.

Another story that really affected me was this “After lunch the corpses from five vehicles were buried. From one vehicle a young women was thrown out with a baby at her breast. It suckled its mother’s milk and died. On this day we worked under the light from the searchlights until seven in the evening. Also on this day a vehicle drove so close to the pit that we heard the choked screams and desperate cries of the victims as well as the pounding on the doors. Before work had finished, six of the pit workers were also shot”.

The following is a letter from an inmate of one of the camps. “We are now living through a terrible time. Thousands of people receive summonses - they are to be sent away to work. The people know well, however, what to make of this and they are scared. And yet one reassures them: It probably is to work. One would be happy if one knew that it really is work. And one hopes, because perhaps indeed it is […]. And one also is indifferent, because we are all tired and exhausted or the point of death.”Read more