Bishop Markowski on the 80th anniversary of the transport of Jews to Treblinka: Never again hatred, killing, hostility and contempt

"On the 80th anniversary of the first transport of Jews to the German Nazi Extermination Camp in Treblinka, the suffering, pain and death of so many innocent people comes before our eyes. On July 22, 1942, the German occupiers organized the first transport of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. The Treblinka II camp became a place of extermination invisible to the eyes of the world, hidden in the forests far from settlements and towns. For more than a year, some 900,000 Jews, mostly from Poland, suffered death there," Bishop Markowski wrote.

"With whom one speaks today, he is gone tomorrow," said one of the Treblinka II prisoners recalled by Bishop Markowski. Bishop added that the prisoners usually lived only a few hours after they arrived at this death camp. "They died solely because of their nationality. They were mostly citizens of the Second Republic of Poland, but also Jews brought from Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia, Austria and Germany. Roma and Sinti from Poland and Germany also were killed there. The Treblinka II camp was established a year after the setting up of the Treblinka I Penal Labor Camp, where mainly Poles were imprisoned. Half of the more than 20,000 inmates of Treblinka I died or were executed," wrote the Chairman of the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism of the Polish Episcopate.

Bishop Markowski noted that the Monument to the Victims of the Treblinka II German Nazi Death Camp is calling out to us today to remember. "The stones, boulders and cobblestones of the road to nowhere and the railroad sleepers evoke the names of countries and cities. They hide the names of acquaintances, friends, neighbors and relatives. We must not forget them. Let our memory and prayers embrace their innocent sacrifice, their suffering and the pain of their loved ones," he stressed.

The chairman of the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism quotes the words of Pope Francis, "We can never move forward without remembering the past (...) We need to 'keep alive the flame of collective conscience, bearing witness to succeeding generations to the horror of what happened', because that witness 'awakens and preserves the memory of the victims, so that the conscience of humanity may rise up in the face of every desire for dominance and destruction” - emphasizes the Holy Father Francis in his encyclical Fratelli tutti.

Bishop Markowski makes the appeal: "The words engraved on the stone at the Treblinka memorial 'Never again' must not become an empty phrase in our present and future. Never again hatred, killing, hostility and contempt for others. The path of peace, brotherhood and solidarity is possible. Each of us makes choices every day that affect our neighbors and our surroundings. Let us choose the good so that we live in peace," appeals the Chairman of the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism of the Polish Bishops' Conference.

We publish the full text of the communiqué:

Communiqué
of the Chairman of the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
on the 80th anniversary of the first transport of Jews to the German Nazi Extermination Camp in Treblinka

On the 80th anniversary of the first transport of Jews to the German Nazi Extermination Camp in Treblinka, the suffering, pain and death of so many innocent people comes before our eyes. On July 22, 1942, the German occupiers organized the first transport of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. The Treblinka II camp became a place of extermination invisible to the eyes of the world, hidden in the forests far from settlements and towns. For more than a year, some 900,000 Jews, mostly from Poland, suffered death there.

The Treblinka II camp is one of the largest Jewish extermination sites in Europe. "With whom one speaks today, he is gone tomorrow," recorded one of the few prisoners who survived. Prisoners usually lived only a few hours after arriving at this death camp. They died solely because of their nationality. They were mostly citizens of the Second Republic of Poland, but also Jews brought from Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia, Austria and Germany. Roma and Sinti from Poland and Germany also were killed there. The Treblinka II camp was established a year after the setting up of the Treblinka I Penal Labor Camp, where mainly Poles were imprisoned. Half of the more than 20,000 inmates of the Treblinka I camp died or were executed.

The moving Memorial to the Victims of the Treblinka II German Nazi Extermination Camp cries out to us today to remember. The stones, boulders and cobblestones of the road to nowhere, and the railroad sleepers recall the names of countries and cities. They hide the names of acquaintances, friends, neighbors and relatives. We must not forget them. Let our memory and prayers embrace their innocent sacrifice, their suffering and the pain of their loved ones.

“We can never move forward without remembering the past,” Pope Francis writes (Fratelli tutti, 249). “We need to ‘keep alive the flame of collective conscience, bearing witness to succeeding generations to the horror of what happened’, because that witness ‘awakens and preserves the memory of the victims, so that the conscience of humanity may rise up in the face of every desire for dominance and destruction”.

The words engraved on the stone at the Treblinka memorial "Never Again" must not become an empty phrase in our present and future. Never again hatred, killing, hostility and contempt for others. The path of peace, brotherhood and solidarity is possible. Every day each of us makes choices that affect our neighbors and our surrounding. Let us choose the good so that we live in peace.

Bishop Rafal Markowski
Chairman of the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism of the Polish Bishops' Conference

Warsaw, July 22, 2022

Translated by Sr. Amata J. Nowaszewska / Office for Foreign Communication of the Polish Bishops’ Conference