Auschwitz survivor shares his memories
"Life had no meaning." Roman Kent, one of the last living survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp, explains the horrors he experienced during the Holocaust.
Stories from a Holocaust survivor
Roman Kent was born in 1929 in Łódź, Poland. He is a Holocaust survivor with a crucial message for future generations 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz. Kent professes, “It's very important to remember the Holocaust because in the first place, I could not believe and I don't even believe today that people could be so cruel to each other what they did in during the Holocaust and the ghettos.” He remembers his life before the war to be rather pleasant and carefree. “As I would say I was living with my family, having my parents. My brother was home. … And my two sisters and we lived a very nice and comfortable life,” he tells Brut. At the end of 1939, his family was imprisoned in Łódź ghetto, where his father eventually died. Then in 1944, his family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Recalling such painful memories, he shares, “There is no way to explain to you what it means to be in the concentration camp. The life has no meaning. The cruelty of one man to another is indescribable. …. when you can see a little child being thrown into an oven for burning? Can anyone explain this? … what innocent little children deserve to be murdered. And I mean murder. There was smile on the faces. The Germans, they throw the little babies into a fire. What did they do? What did they deserve?”
A survivor’s biggest wish
Roman’s mother was murdered in Auschwitz. One of his sisters died shortly after the end of the war. He met his wife, also a Holocaust survivor, after emigrating to the U.S. Roman has dedicated his life to being a tireless advocate for Holocaust education. “For me, a survivor of Auschwitz, to forget the horrific experiences during the concentration camps, even for one moment, is impossible. Witnessing the atrocities committed at the entrance gates to Auschwitz, was more than enough to keep me awake at night until the end of time… we survivors do not want our past to be our children’s future.” he states.
There were over 40,000 camps and ghettos in Europe during the Holocaust. Yet, 49% of U.S. millennials cannot name a single one. To combat the lack of Holocaust education, Kent recommends starting “young children since their mind is tabula rasa. Their mind is blank.” This is the ideal time to inform and educate to ensure they aren’t given any misinformation. “When you have, right now, so many incidents of anti-Semitism. It grows. And if it could happen in a country so cultural as that of Germany. Imagine what can happen in other countries,” he warns.
Brut.
35 comments
Ramona L.
04/02/2021 18:28https://youtu.be/C4c3z_sBm3E
Ruth M.
03/15/2021 17:40Makes your heart hurt 💔
Chris M.
02/16/2021 16:53One of the reasons I have no faith....if I had the memory of those poor kiddies, I don’t think I could survive life...these poor people that witnessed this horror doesn’t bare thinking about.
Debra F.
02/02/2021 02:38He went through the Nazis Regime and thought he was safe America he was safe and wouldn’t have to put up with the terror and these crazy people who claim to be Republicans sick of the whole bunch act like a bunch of radicals
Amanda B.
01/29/2021 08:15This is what the followers of Trump are the seeds of, hatred of those of different colour, faith and beliefs. We mustn’t, cannot, let those seeds grow and flourish not just in the US but everywhere.
Nicola R.
01/29/2021 01:02Thank you for telling your story, it matters so much that we do not forget. I have been to the Holocaust Museum. It changed me forever, I was given a card with a person name on it and had to follow their path and see what happened to them. I came to care and my heart was broken when I found out she had been killed. I walked into one room and I was surrounded by pictures of people. Babies to Grandparents, there were the pictures a local Doctor had taken all the people under his care over many decades. Their crime, they had hidden people from the establishment and tried to save them and for that, they wiped out a whole village!
Loraine T.
01/28/2021 19:14It's cruel to mutilate little babies, I know that! How many have died or been maimed? Let them choose when they are adults, I say.
Kathleen O.
01/28/2021 14:06Children cry out in pain all over the world every single day
John S.
01/28/2021 13:14If there is a God, He will have to beg for my forgiveness. - carved by a prisoner at Mauthausen concentration camp.
Jam J.
01/28/2021 12:40NEVER AGAIN. SHALOM ISRAEL
Aileen S.
01/28/2021 10:19It is dangerous to have our memories of history die. We must preserve them somehow.
Babar Y.
01/28/2021 09:48Very sad indeed no doubt. But does this gives anyone an excuse to brutally repeat the same on the Palestinian people and their land?
Amberlee C.
01/28/2021 08:59I pray and hope humanity never lets this happen again ! Let's stand together against all forms of hate 💙
Joanna Q.
01/28/2021 02:24I am so sorry 💔 May we never forget and never be complacent! My Uncle US soldier arrived at Auschwitz 2 weeks after allied forces. The only entry in his journal was that they arrived. What he witnessed haunted him until his death at 82 yrs of age. He spoke of the atrocities a bit and said they made the local civilians come and assist with burials, made them see the most inhumanity of human beings 💔 Never Again
William G.
01/28/2021 02:02Trump is another Nazis
Muhammad I.
01/28/2021 01:55Just look Palestine now, free Palestine...❤️
Dawna K.
01/28/2021 01:30I wonder how the descendants of the Holocaust survivors and the descendent of the troops who fought against Nazi Germany feel when they see younger men and women wearing Nazi symbols as they march on the capitol?
Colleen H.
01/28/2021 01:00Never forget
Assinav B.
01/28/2021 00:15Heartbreaking 💔😭😭
Hannukah E.
01/27/2021 23:25We still remembering the Auschwitz holocaust last living of survivors of Jewish notion🌼 we love you 💙🇮🇱🕎🕍✡😔