Open Lecture on the Occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day – 27 January Held

On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January 2014), an Open Lecture and exhibition were organized. The subject of the exhibition, under the name of “From Bosnia to Auschwitz”, was the concentration camp prisoners and documentation.

On 1 November 2005, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Resolution 60/7, which marks the 27th of January as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date is also recollection of the largest Nazi death camp at Auschwitz - Birkenau in Poland, because on 27 January 1945, the Red Army liberated this death camp.

UNSA Vice-Rector, Prof. Dr. Ugo Vlaisavljevic was keynoter at the Open Lecture. He reminded the attendees that the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is traditionally observed at the University of Sarajevo.
“The question the Holocaust is not simply a question concerning the marking of some past event. It is related to the entire recent history, particularly with the recent history at the turn of the millennium. It marks an entire social order; it marks revival of something that was not stopped with the Second World War, not even by the Auschwitz camp closure. Our own experience is a vivid warning” said Vice-Rector Vlaisavljevic who was also the today's Lecture moderator.

Prof. Dr. Smail Cekic, UNSA Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law Director and full professor at the UNSA Faculty of Political Sciences delivered a lecture on the topic “FINAL SOLUTION OF THE JEWISH ISSUE IN THE AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP”. Prof. Cekic reminded the attendees that the Holocaust is the unique genocidal event in the 20th century’s history.

“From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi Germany and its collaborators, deliberately and systematically killed approximately 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million of children. It is about the wholesale, most monstrous and most systematic genocide, the annihilation of the European Jews , the final solution of the Jewish Issue in Europe, behind which stood the state, its government and political leadership and its entire authorities. It is the heinous crime of mass destruction of human life” said Prof. Cekic.
When presenting the key facts about the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Prof. Cekic stated that the Nazis among other things, in accordance with their racist ideology, politics and practice aimed at achieving the final solution of the Jewish Issue - the annihilation of the entire Jewish population in Europe.

“The very term final solution of the Jewish Issue (“Endlösung der Judenfrage”) was first used in a letter by Reinhard Heydrich , chief of the Reich Main Security Office, of 26 February 1942 , following the conclusions of the (secret) of the Wannsee Conference ( held on 20 January 1942) which lasted only a few hours. The sole goal of the Conference was the Nazi determination to find the most effective method of extermination of the Jews” said Prof. Cekic.

Dr. Eli Tauber, UNSA Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law Research Associate said that about the Holocaust was spoken annually – on 27 January. He also added: “The main goal is not just to remember. The goal of marking this date is also to raise awareness of primarily young people , through education , teaching in schools, to learn and understand the way in which we can act preventively to stop the genocide from happening again“.
The topic under the title “From Bosnia to Auschwitz “, about which Dr. Tauber spoke, is a part of the research resulting from his work with colleagues in order to set a new exhibition about the B&H people who died in Auschwitz.

“The research led to the fact that we now have a completely new understanding of the suffering of the B&H population in Auschwitz. The research also led to the finding out who was the victim, from where the people were deported, how they were taken to Auschwitz, and from which cities those who perished in Auschwitz had been taken” said Dr. Tauber.

The Auschwitz - Birkenau Concentration camp was the largest concentration camp in which over a million of European Jews perished. The Auschwitz II Concentration camp was located near the Polish town Oświęcim, near Krakow, Poland. Over 1,300,000 people from all over Europe were deported to this camp from all over Europe, of which 1.1 million were killed. Approximately 900000 were immediately killed upon arrival in the gas chambers or shot. The remaining 200000 people died because of torture, abuse, hard labor, medical experimentation or systematic starvation by the camp guards.

“In general, of all Sarajevo and Bosnian Jews who are taken in the summer of 1942 in that camp – there were several thousand of them, only two men returned from a separate group of 70 men. From that transport, upon arrival, everyone was killed in the gas chambers. The Auschwitz survivors, approximately a hundred people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, including a dozen Jews , are those who had been captured either in partisans or in partisan hiding places, during the Sutjeska offensive or during the German penetration to the liberated territory (Croatian coast)” said Dr. Tauber.

Emphasizing that Auschwitz indeed  in a certain way  bears the mark of the B&H people suffering, from the respect towards the victims, Dr. Tauber read a list of B&H cites from where the victims were deported to Auschwitz: Banja Luka, Bihac , Bijeljina, Bosanski Novi, Bosanski Petrovac, Bratunac, Brcko, Bugojno, Buna, Derventa, Duvno, Gacko, Glamoc, Gornji Vakuf, Gracanica, Grahovo,  Kalinovik, Kljuc, Kruscica, Kulen Vakuf, Livno, Ljubuski, Modrica, Mostar, Orasje, Prijedor, Prnjavor, Sanski Most, Sarajevo, Savnik, Sehovici, Teslic, Travnik, Trebinje, Tuzla, Visoko, Zenica, Zvornik.

“This is just the beginning of a research. We have the obligation to investigate the fate of people who were killed in World War II, people who died in Auschwitz” said Dr. Tauber.

When speaking about the psychological aspects of the Holocaust, Prof. Dr. Ismet Dizdarevic, University of Sarajevo Professor Emeritus, emphasized the fact that the issue of the Holocaust and the genocide against Bosniaks in B&H, has been quite researched.

“For us, the psychologists, the source of interest is in the fascism as an ideology and the theory proclaiming the higher race of people. It was stated in all documents that the Jews have repulsing, infectious blood. A group of psychologist served the Third Reich and developed that psychology” said Professor Dizdarevic and added: “The second fact is the development of sadomasochism that had been present in fascism - the rise of the Germans nation, but at the same time installed into all fascism supporters as submissiveness. Such was their behavior when they were arrested, punished or executed – that behavior was expressing their firm belief that they were doing the righteous work - even when they carried out unimaginable atrocities”.