Polish-Jewish Auschwitz and Holocaust survivor Marian Turski dies at 98
Marian Turski, the Polish-Jewish historian, journalist, advocate of Polish-Jewish dialogue and a former prisoner of the World War Two Nazi-German death camp Auschwitz, has died at the age of 98.
The information about his death was provided by the Polityka weekly, where Turski had been an editor for many years.
Turski was a Polish Jew who survived imprisonment in the Auschwitz concentration camp and the subsequent deadly evacuation marches. After the war, he became a prominent Polish journalist, member of the International Auschwitz Council, the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, the Association of Jewish Combatants and Victims of World War Two and member of the Board of the House of the Wannsee Conference. Since March 2009, he chaired the Board of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
In 1997 he was awarded the Commanders Cross with the Star of the Polonia Restituta Order and, in 2007, he received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to Polish-German relations.
In 2012, French Ambassador to Poland Francois Barry Delongchamps decorated Turski with the highest French distinction, the National Order of the Legion of Honour, for his involvement in shaping Polish-Jewish relations.
Describing Turski as a true "guardian of their memory," Ambassador Delongchamps said at the time that Turski's life, involvement and activity for Polish-Israeli relations were highly valued by the top authorities of his country, the home of the world's third largest Jewish Diaspora.
Born Moshe Turbowicz on June 26, 1926 in Druskiennikai, pre-World War Two Poland, he survived the Lodz ghetto and German Nazi Auschwitz death camp. After the Second World War, Turski settled in Warsaw. Since 1958 he was editor of the Polityka weekly history desk.
During the main observations of the 75th liberation anniversary of Auschwitz on the camp's memorial site in southern Poland in 2020, Turski made the memorable statement "Auschwitz didn't fall out of the sky."
"Do not be indifferent when any authority violates accepted and existing social contracts. Be faithful to the... Eleventh Commandment: Do not be indifferent. Because if are, you will not even notice when another Auschwitz descends from the sky falls upon the heads of you and your descendants." Turski warned then.
On January 27 this year, at the 80th Auschwitz liberation anniversary, Turski said that those who lived to tell about their experience were always very few. "Therefore, I think that our thoughts should go to the vast majority, to the millions of victims who will never tell us what they went through, what they felt, because they were claimed by the Holocaust."
Turski also spoke about the current global rise of antisemitism which led to the Holocaust in the past. He said that for hundreds of years, various nationalities and ethnic groups lived side by side, and that hatred and prejudice towards them had always led to bloodshed. "Luckily, there are positive experiences when both sides conclude that there is no other means that compromise to ensure peaceful, safe life for their children, grandchildren, future generations," Turski said, giving Germany and France, and Poland and Lithuania as examples of such conflict-free coexistence.
The 20th century is passing away with Marian Turski, but his advice remains that we should react to every manifestation of intolerance, violence, hatred, because before we know it, a catastrophe will come, Marek Zając, secretary of the International Auschwitz Council, told PAP.
Rafal Trzaskowski, Warsaw mayor and the presidential candidate of Poland's main ruling party reacted to the sad news on the X platform: "Marian Turski survived the hell of the concentration camp. And throughout his entire life he did a lot to ensure that a similar hell would never happen to anyone again. He reminded us not to be indifferent. We will not be. I promise you that."
"He bore witness until the end. RIP Marian Turski," Szymon Holownia, speaker of Sejm lower house wrote on X.
"Irreplaceable authority, who reminded us in each of his speeches what is most important in life. The eleventh commandment, which he addressed to the whole world, will stay with us forever," Senate Speaker Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska wrote on X.
"Marian Turski was a teacher and publicist who throughout his life conveyed the truth about the tragedy of the Holocaust, fighting for the memory of the victims and the education of future generations," the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage wrote on X.
"A survivor and a rescuer. A witness to history, a tireless teacher to generations, the conscience of the modern world," Minister of Justice, Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar wrote on X.
"Now it is our turn not to be indifferent," he added. (PAP)
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