“Those were people who wanted to live their lives”

Hanna Hüttner dreams of a society that accepts and respects everyone, regardless of their skin colour, ethnicity, sexuality, gender or religion. And she wants to play her part in achieving this. This desire prompted her to spend a year abroad at the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim /Auschwitz in Poland. The young German has been living and working near Krakow in Poland for four months now. 

What does your work at the Youth Meeting Centre involve?

At the moment, I’m mostly offering guided tours of the city. Many people know Auschwitz because of the concentration camp but know nothing about the city. Soon I will also start giving guided tours of the Jewish Museum. Apart from that, I have work to do at the youth centre. Groups come here, often from Germany, though also from France, the Czech Republic, Poland and Finland. They spend a night at the centre and all have their own itineraries, though these normally include a visit to the main camp and to Birkenau. In the evenings we often gather to discuss their impressions of their visit and help them process what they have seen. It’s often very emotional. I am also the point of contact for any issues or questions the groups might have.

You have been in Oświęcim for four months. Is there any particular moment that sticks in your mind? 

A very interesting thing happens during every guided tour of the city, namely when I ask people what percentage of the population of Oświęcim they think were Jewish in the 1930s. The estimates always vary widely, but people are always astonished to learn that more than half the city’s population was Jewish. I then like to tell them the story of one particular Jewish family. They had a factory in Oświęcim. The factory owner and his wife travelled to the US in 1939 to take part in the World’s Fair in New York. Their two-year-old daughter stayed home with her grandmother while they were away. When they wanted to return to Germany they were unable to, as the Second World War had broken out in the meantime. In the US they finally received the news in 1942 that their daughter had been murdered at the age of five at Belzec extermination camp, as had her grandmother. The factory owner always wanted to return to Oświęcim and kept a bag packed and ready next to his bed throughout his time in America. The trip was finally possible in 1967. However, Oświęcim had changed beyond recognition and the dream of returning home was shattered. The factory owner died in 1970 - of a broken heart, as his wife later said. 

Whenever I tell this story I can see from their faces just how upsetting people find it. But I think it’s important to tell it because it makes people realise that not only did a very large number of people lose their lives during the Holocaust, but that there is a personal story behind every one of these statistics. Those were people who wanted to live their lives. And each of these people had a family who is mourning them or indeed was completely wiped out.

How did you feel yourself when you visited the memorial sites for the first time?

It is impossible to describe the feeling. It really distresses you and preoccupies you for hours and days afterwards. At these memorial sites you find yourself standing in places where so many people were detained and murdered under horrific conditions. One must never forget this suffering. These impressions are also the reason why I am determined to continue fighting against discrimination once I have completed my year abroad.