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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.

01/27/2020 9:58 PM
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85 comments

  • Joàn E.
    02/17/2020 14:22

    So very sad! Never forget that we must never lose our freedom, and allow anyone to make America a Communists Socialists state! Remember that folks. Vote Republican in 2020

  • Onosholema O.
    02/11/2020 08:25

    It is always unbearable and heart wrenching for me to read the accounts of the evil of the Holocaust. Man's depth of wickedness displayed in the Holocaust act is unimaginably torturous even now to the soul. How could such have been done by man against man?. ????????. What heart conceived and executed such extreme and remote evil of all times. Never again should the world see such. Regarding Gods people, Israel, O! I join with my voice to say "NEVER AGAIN" !!!

  • Isabell W.
    02/09/2020 19:12

    Never Again‼😥

  • Kruezee S.
    02/06/2020 23:52

    I totally agree with this great survivor ❤️....israel needs to listen to the survivors and not there greed !

  • Lynn D.
    02/02/2020 19:17

    My aunt was from this,I always wondered if she had family,brothers or sisters or her parents.

  • Joann L.
    02/01/2020 10:21

    I am so sorry this happen to you

  • Lyn D.
    02/01/2020 03:42

    It makes u wonder if there was a God why didn’t he save them ,,,,,only saying

  • Gary D.
    02/01/2020 01:32

    They lived worse than animals! No human being should ever be treated like that! Being a human that's empathic, compassionate, and wanting people to be happy and full of life. If I was to have lived back then and been there to see that when we liberated the camps. I don't care how tough of a young man i am. I would've cried my eyes out because i couldn't have saved them any sooner and witnessed evil that concentrated. I cant imagine the hell and horror those poor souls seen at those camps! God bless all of those survivors!

  • Debbie S.
    02/01/2020 01:14

    🙏🙏🙏

  • Van G.
    02/01/2020 01:11

    And we have people in this country that want socialism, everything is downhill from their, God help us all.

  • Lou E.
    01/31/2020 23:48

    Also, Man's search for meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.

  • Ann C.
    01/31/2020 22:58

    I can't imagine the horror that families had to endure. May we as parents and grandparents never let this part of world history be forgotten. God forgive us and help us be better people.

  • Linda E.
    01/31/2020 22:01

    And they want to erase history and this is reasons why we need to keep history alive

  • Carolyn S.
    01/31/2020 19:41

    If the American people don't awake up this is going to happen in our own country people will be put in conservation camps then they will be put in box cars and taken to a place where they will be put in furnaces and burned alive this could happen to your children your grandchildren your mother your father we are headed into a holocaust in our on country

  • Christine T.
    01/31/2020 16:46

    Thank you for sharing your pain, may it never ever be forgotten or repeated.God have mercy on our world.

  • Ximena V.
    01/31/2020 14:16

    In answer to his question at the end: When Children are caged in Texas, for instance.

  • Jack C.
    01/31/2020 14:12

    God will not forget.... Let us pray, we will not forget also.

  • Michelle L.
    01/31/2020 13:48

    Never forget

  • Clark N.
    01/31/2020 11:54

    Yes that's why they killing palestians today

  • Heather D.
    01/31/2020 11:41

    There are children all over the world crying out for help Who live in despair not knowing what is going to happen to them next. Living in the streets, human trafficking and the list it goes on. Unfortunately there are children living in fear everyday of their living existence. Such heartache to listen to these stories but we must listen and hopefully the children will be saved