음... Kjell Andersen piano plays softly So what did your father tell you about this place and where we are right now? He told me that this was the worst camp he was at. He was, you know, he was telling us that Auschwitz was easier than the ghetto because in the ghetto you not only suffered abuse but you didn't have any food. While in Auschwitz there was very little food but it was regular. You knew that you'll get it. You'll get a piece of bread and soup. That was for the day but in the ghetto sometimes you would not find food for a week. So he didn't suggest that Auschwitz was a holiday camp, of course, but he said that compared to Auschwitz, Gusen was hell. And I then read that the Nazis themselves called Gusen hell of hells. And they knew and we heard about the very short great shortage of places for people to live in yeah this was the case in in all the you know we saw this in Mauthausen as well but in Gusen it was terrifying and no one lived more than a few weeks as a prisoner in Gusen so he came here on I think the 2nd or 3rd of February 1945 and he was freed for some reason no one can explain in Ebensee which is an hour away, on the 8th of May. 8th of May was the end of the war, and he was freed on that day. And we don't know, because he actually is registered in Gusen, and he told me that he worked in Gusen too, and in the tunnels. But we don't know what happened for him to be freed in Ebensee. The other thing that happened is that the tunnels were quite narrow. I mean, this is a big tunnel, but there are some that are narrower, I think. I mean, this is a big tunnel, but there are some that are narrower, I think. And it was too expensive or difficult to use horses. So they used people to pull the trolleys on a mini railway to bring the parts in and to take the parts out. They were tied to the trolleys by leather thongs, which as you probably see in the picture I have, they all have those leather thongs. He didn't go into details of what they did, but he just told me that they worked on building Messerschmitt airplanes, and that three or four weeks before the end of the war, they saw British bombers above here, flying east, and they understood that the war is at an end. And so they decided, there were lots of Russian prisoners of war with him, they decided to do a sabotage of the production line. And they did. and the Nazis caught on to it and put them all outside and said, who did it? And of course nobody would admit it. So they lashed everyone, about 200 people. They lashed everyone with 50 lashes, and a lot of people died. So they died three weeks before their liberation the other thing he told me about he never saw the picture that was taken he of course saw that the picture is taken but he never saw the picture he died before we found it in Mauthausen, and I'm glad he hasn't seen it. And in that picture, there are a number of young guys younger than him. One of them looks like 13. They don't wear anything. They're totally naked. And he told me that the Americans gave them bully beef. And of course, they didn't eat meat for years, and they hardly ate anything. So two of the guys that were sitting and cooking with him, which are in the picture, died the same day as a result of this very strong meat that they just could not could not tolerate so these these are the stories that I remember as a child not a child but you know I was like 10 or 11 still a child and he thought he'll never live here alive. He was 32 kilos when he was freed. He loved the Americans obviously. That's what I remember. Did he ever come back here? No. No, we... A few years before he died, we went as a family to Poland. Before he died, we went as a family to Poland. We visited three or four extermination camps because the rest of the family died in Treblinka. So we went to Treblinka, we went to other camps, and we went to Auschwitz where both my parents were. My mother also was in Auschwitz. They were first cousins, my father and my mother. So at one point in time, he had his piece of bread and the women group passed back from work. So the only time they saw each other, he threw that bread and she got it. So that was the only time they met in Auschwitz. And then of course the women were marched to Bergen-Belsen, which is much further than this. And the men, about 6,000, I think, marched here. They started in Mauthausen, and then most of them, on the same day, or a day later, ended up in Gussen. And most of them died. Most of the people who came with him died because of the conditions. I mean they were not killed so to speak, but they died out of exhaustion or starvation or both of those. Very few were freed with him and in the picture picture, I mean, that's not all the people that were freed, but in that picture, the way he described those people, I recognized them from the picture. So there were two who were his close friends in Gusen and they helped each other and they were involved, all of them, in the sabotage I told you about. That sounds like a good idea that went bad because I think there were probably like 10 people involved in the sabotage, but the people who died from the lashing I think were more than 30 so the whole thing was obviously not necessary but they were so angry that they did it anyway and what does it, I'm here now while Israelis are genociding Palestinians. I'm an Israeli, and I see Jews. Sorry. I see Jews killing Palestinians. It's not something I wanted ever to see. So this is a special time. And we need to speak about this and we're not allowed to speak about it anywhere in Europe or in the United States. But you know the Europeans and the Americans but but especially the British, have created the Palsang problem. So it's a very strange time. It's a very strange time because this was secret. This was done in the greatest secrecy. Okay, the people that lived here saw the prisoners. But did they know that Jews and Soviet prisoners of war are killed in millions? I don't think so. So you know the people of Austria, the people of Germany as a whole were not involved daily in the genocide. Obviously the SS was, obviously some of the Wehrmacht was, but most people in Germany and Austria were not involved in the genocide personally. Israelis, I mean the army in Gaza was more than 300,000. So you know imagine a lot of men and women actually are involved in killing Palestinians every day for two and a half years. Yeah. It's not a secret. And some of them are so proud of what they're doing, they're sharing it online. How can this be human? How can this be normal? How can this be allowed? And how can this be supported by so many European and Western nations? So to me this time is really terrifying. If my father knew, I don't know how it will affect him, but I know how it affects me. And I just want to shout, you know. We can't allow it. That's how I feel today. And I feel close to my father. Because when we came to Israel in 1948, I was a baby. He refused to fight. He refused to kill. He went to jail. So yes, I'm very close to him because of that. And this place where he suffered most, and with all his colleagues, is a symbol for me for what happens now, which I think is no better. I'm not going to say it's worse, but it's no better. So yes, there is a special meaning for our trip today that wouldn't be there if I was here five years ago or ten years ago. I went to see Auschwitz with my father, and it was a very difficult visit. But in a sense, it helped him, and it helped me, because he felt a whole person. He was not a whole person in this tunnel. But when he comes to Auschwitz with his son and daughter and his wife, he's a whole person, you know? So, yeah, I'm not a whole person now. Yeah. Because I'm part of a collective that does that and that's terrible. I understand. How do you commemorate this though? Like you're here to celebrate, this is your moment to reflect, i guess that's what a commemoration is isn't it to think about just to honor those and then to think about what's happened since well you know we're going to be at the number of commemoration over the next two days. And I'll tell you one thing for sure. No one in those commemorations will utter the word Gaza or the word Palestine. Now that is a terrible thing because what was once secret now is public and the public knows and little children can see other little children killed on their telephones so how do you commemorate a genocide that hasn't finished that started decades ago that everyone knows about if they do care and if they read or if they see the news? How do you commemorate the fact that for 80 years, there is no hope for Palestinians? You know, my parents suffered for six long years You know, my parents suffered for six long years with millions of people in Europe. It's not just Jews. It's not just Soviets. I mean, millions of Europeans suffered for those six years. But there was an end to it. It finished. This is not, there is no end. If you're a Palestinian, how many times do you have to lose your home? How many times do you have to lose your limbs? How many times do you have to lose your mother and father or your children? There's no end. There's no hope, there's no horizon, okay? Now I think that is terrible. So we have to have an end to it. We, Europeans, people, have to put an end to this. And not only that, what is Jewish about genocide? It is totally anti-Jewish. It's obviously anti-human. It is the worst crime that the UN has decreed. So I think that's what I want to remember today. That today we are talking now about what nobody will be talking in those commemorations at which tens of thousands of people will be present with important people, with politicians, with community leaders, and none of them will say a word about the genocide which is now happening before us. So I'm saying it now because I will not be able to say it again, not tomorrow, not the day after, not in any concentration camp that is commemorating murder and commemorating genocide apart from the genocide in Palestine. This is unforgivable. This is unconscionable. This is unconscionable, and at least those of us that understand it have to say it all the time until this murder stops. Stops totally until Palestinians are treated like human beings and not like the Jews and others were treated in there. Okay, thank you. Thank you. piano plays softly موسیقی در موسیقی درسته Thank you.