On January 27, 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Marian Turski addressed world leaders and Holocaust survivors. He did not expect to be at the next big commemoration and wanted to leave a message for his grandchildren’s generation: the destruction of the Jewish people began with small steps that were tolerated, such as banning them from benches in Berlin, before gradually evolving into ghettos and death camps. “Auschwitz did not descend from the sky,” and the eleventh Commandment should be “Thou shalt not be indifferent,” he said, adding: “Because if you are indifferent, before you know it, another Auschwitz will come out of the blue for you or your descendants.”
Turski was 18 when, in the summer of 1944, he was
