Rebecca Phillips:

If I had taken one photograph at Auschwitz, it would have been of those three teenagers, or of the jovial father and son. I would have marked it with a skull and crossbones, and a German word of warning. That would be my commemoration. I would document such heartlessness in a heartless place, the true danger of the passage of time.

On the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we must listen to the testimony of people who were there and mark the occasion with solemn ceremonies. But it’s also a time to figure out how to reach those who are oblivious to history, or so far removed from the experience that they perceive horror as kitsch.

I grew up with the knowledge of the tragedy of the Holocaust as a fundamental part of my identity. Now that I have only one remaining grandparent to share her story, the urgency of transmitting this reality to future generations is even greater.

My experience at Auschwitz taught me that to correct the distortions of memory, witness must go beyond family, beyond official commemorations. Somehow, the experience of the Holocaust must also become part of the identity of those people who regard it as a distant curiosity. If not, the shape of memory will be defined for future generations as much by the distortions as by the stories of families like mine.

January 27 was the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp, and which was liberated on January 27, 1945. Rebecca’s grandparents had survived the systemic slaughter of Jews by the Nazis during the World War II. — http://beliefnet.com, concluded