Our vision is to construct a building to remember all the victims of genocide, dictatorship and war. The Peace Mound Center will stand between the former concentration camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau, reminding us all to actively support peace and to respect human rights.
We, the initiators, will do everything in our power:
„Today I went to tour the concentration camp Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II- Birkenau for the third time. It was heart wrenching to view the entrance to the camp, the gas chambers and the crematorium as it was the sequence of death for countless millions of innocent lives. I observed other people on the tour and watched them as they returned to their busses and cars. I was concerned about their thoughts and how this visit affected them. Clearly… we have to build the Peace Mound Center so we can have the people visit the center for healing, education, and to give them hope for a bright new tomorrow. Indeed we don’t have to walk this path again as a species. Surely the human race can learn to live in peace as we share life on this planet. Let’s move forward together and say never again. We have the God given capacity to live in the higher life of peace”.
Here are the photos along with the morbid descriptions of what happened from within the concentration camp Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau, Poland.
„Arbeit Macht Frei”
The writing on the gate „Arbeit Macht Frei”, which means „work brings freedom”. This is the gate that Jewish laborers walked through to work in the camp. We were told that to the right of the gate was an orchestra that was put their to keep spirits high, it also kept the marches to a beat so everybody kept in line when walking through the gate. Also every body walking through the gate in the morning to work must comeback through the gate in the evening, so if somebody died whilst working, their bodies would be dragged back through the gates in the evening to make the numbers up.This was the mouth of death for many millions of innocent people.
The shooting wall at Auschwitz I – Block 11
Auschwitz I used to be Polish army barracks, then when the Germans invaded, it was turned into a concentration camp because of its structure and it’s railway links, so Jews all over Europe could be transported to Auschwitz. Jews came from all over Europe.
This was a map in the museum that showed us where the Jews came from. The place in the bottom right of the map took 11 days on a cattle truck with no food, no water and no sanitation. The cattle trucks were about 25 feet long, to 10 wide.
The trucks could transport 15 cows, yet up to and often more than 100 people were forced into them. The killing started before the Jews even arrived at Auschwitz.
In the museum was this sign. We were told that if you gave a minute’s silence for every human life lost in Auschwitz alone, it would take you two years. These days, if a well-known celebrity dies, we tend to have a minute’s silence for them, but knowing it would take 2 years for every Auschwitz victim alone was something that hit us all, especially knowing that there were millions more killed elsewhere in the holocaust. One million Jews, would equal two years of silence. Think of it and say a prayer.
As the sign says, the majority of the people were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. We were shown into the gas chambers. The chambers were filled with 1500 people at a time and were gassed with Zyklon-B, within 25 minutes, they were all killed. After this, they were to be cremated, but it took 6 days to do so, which to the Nazis, was too long.
We were shown, in the museums, the possessions of the Jews. Human hair, suitcases, glasses, crockery and even artificial limbs were on display.
Human hair was shaved from the Jews who were working and were shipped back to Germany to stuff mattresses and pillows. However, this was the hair that was shaved after the Jews were gassed. They were not shaved until after they were killed because the Germans did not want to give the impression that anything was wrong. Also, if the Jews were to riot, there would not be enough guards to control them. It’s enough to make one wish there were an uprising. Perhaps history would have been different.
This is a small proportion of the possessions that were ruthlessly taken upon arrival at Auschwitz. These were the glasses that belonged to the Jews and were never sold to help Germany’s economy, or given to the poor.. This has a massive impact on us all that viewed this display. It really gave us all this reminder that 1.1 million is just a statistic, but each of these people were individuals with a soul and a spirit. – Wolfgang Hildebrandt
Introduction to the holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. „Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning „sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were „racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed „inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.
During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived „racial inferiority”: Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.
What was the holocaust?
In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the „Final Solution,” the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe. Although Jews, whom the Nazis deemed a priority danger to Germany, were the primary victims of Nazi racism, other victims included some 200,000 Roma (Gypsies). At least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly Germans, living in institutional settings, were murdered in the so-called Euthanasia Program.
We ask you most sincerely to support The Peace Mound Center project in Oswiecim/Auschwitz Poland, emotionally, financially and politically.
With the construction of this building the Polish Senior Citizen’s Union, a member of the European Senior Citizen’s Union wishes to remember all victims of genocide, dictatorships and wars. The Peace Mound Center will stand between the former concentration camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau, reminding us all to actively support Peace and to respect Human Rights.
The Peace Mound Center is being initiatied by former prisoners and survivors of the concentration camps , prisons and gulags. Already, during its planning phase, many people wordlwide have been moved to show their solidarity mainly by donating a memorial stone. We are thankful for your contributions.
We are now starting our concrete work for which we need financial support.
Please help the Mound of Remembrance and Peace with your donations to meet its goals.
We, the initiators, will do everything in our power:
Help us to make the The Peace Mound Center a reality!
Our earth is but a small star in the great universe
Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexed by war,
untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless
distinctions of race, color or theory. Grant us that courage
and foreseeing to begin this task today that our children
and our children’s children may be proud of the name of man.
Extract from a prayer to the United Nations
Stephen Vincent Benét
Henryk Łagodzki
HENRYK ŁAGODZKI
(15.07.1927 – 19.07.2012)
President 2010 – 2012
Participant in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 -
unit of Captain Witold Pilecki,
former prisoner of Warschau and other
concentration camps
…so that future generations can learn from the painful war experience of contemporary witnesses, that in every war many innocent people will suffer and be killed. That must not happen again after the Auschwitz concentration camp hell and after the 2nd World War. We do not need more wars! Only in peace can people live normally and develop themselves.The Peace Mound Center can become a symbol of World Peace.
Dr. Janusz Mlynarski – retired surgeon, former prisoner No. 355 of Auschwitz Concentration Camp from the first deportation on June 14.1940
Auschwitz is a place you cannot forget. The Peace Mound Center in the city of Oświęcim must be a symbol of life in Peace.
Tadeusz Jakubowicz – Chairman of the Jewish Religious Community in Cracow
Auschwitz is the murder capitol of the world. We raise our voices to be heard.
Freedom is so so pure that God gives it as a cure.
I bless with all my heart this initiative and all the People of Good Will who support this work for PEACE. May it be realized as soon as possible and may it serve all the People and Nations of the world in the future! May it help raise people’s awareness about the misfortunes of others and contribute to a significant learning from the past in order to create a better world in which everyone can live and develop in peace and for peace.
Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy – Bielsko-Zywiec Diocese/Poland
… so that the up and coming new generation in Germany, whose parents came from a different cultural group will never forget the atrocities man is capable of when he loses his connection with the God given commandment to love ones neighbor.
Dr. Bernhard Worms – President of the European Senior Citizen’s Union – former Parliament Secretary
…so people from every nation, culture, religion, and race can have opportunity to use The Peace Mound Center to meet and work together to realize a violence free humane life based on understanding and mutual respect can be accomplished through meaningful dialogue with each other.
Janusz Marszalek – former Mayor of City of Oświęcim 2002 – 2011 and President of the Polish Senior Citizen’s Union
“…the Holy Father wishes that the forthcoming Mound will be a visible sign and the symbol of the call to forgiveness and conciliation, a reminder of the need for peace in the hearts of the people and in the world.
His Holiness commends the Polish Senior Citizens Union to God in prayer and wishes a successful completion of the project realized by them – the construction of the Mound of Remembrance and Peace. He gives from his heart apostolic blessing to all who are engaged in this work and support it. “
Letter from Vatican
“…the Holy Father wishes that the forthcoming Mound will be a visible sign and the symbol of the call to forgiveness and conciliation, a reminder of the need for peace in the hearts of the people and in the world.
His Holiness commends the Polish Senior Citizens Union to God in prayer and wishes a successful completion of the project realized by them – the construction of the Mound of Remembrance and Peace. He gives from his heart apostolic blessing to all who are engaged in this work and support it. “
Letter from Vatican
…so people from every nation, culture, religion, and race can have opportunity to use The Peace Mound Center to meet and work together to realize a violence free humane life based on understanding and mutual respect can be accomplished through meaningful dialogue with each other.
Janusz Marszalek – former Mayor of City of Oświęcim 2002 – 2011 and President of the Polish Senior Citizen’s Union
… so that the up and coming new generation in Germany, whose parents came from a different cultural group will never forget the atrocities man is capable of when he loses his connection with the God given commandment to love ones neighbor.
Dr. Bernhard Worms – President of the European Senior Citizen’s Union – former Parliament Secretary
I bless with all my heart this initiative and all the People of Good Will who support this work for PEACE. May it be realized as soon as possible and may it serve all the People and Nations of the world in the future! May it help raise people’s awareness about the misfortunes of others and contribute to a significant learning from the past in order to create a better world in which everyone can live and develop in peace and for peace.
Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy – Bielsko-Zywiec Diocese/Poland
Auschwitz is the murder capitol of the world. We raise our voices to be heard.
Freedom is so so pure that God gives it as a cure.
Auschwitz is a place you cannot forget. The Peace Mound Center in the city of Oświęcim must be a symbol of life in Peace.
Tadeusz Jakubowicz – Chairman of the Jewish Religious Community in Cracow
…so that future generations can learn from the painful war experience of contemporary witnesses, that in every war many innocent people will suffer and be killed. That must not happen again after the Auschwitz concentration camp hell and after the 2nd World War. We do not need more wars! Only in peace can people live normally and develop themselves.The Peace Mound Center can become a symbol of World Peace.
Dr. Janusz Mlynarski – retired surgeon, former prisoner No. 355 of Auschwitz Concentration Camp from the first deportation on June 14.1940
