CONVERSATION WITH A CONTEMPORARY WITNESS During my visit to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum with Youth4Peace, I had the chance to listen to Mr. Bogdan Bartnikowski's story in person. He began by briefly painting the greater picture of the era - the events that led up to him being imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz, the Warsaw Uprising, and other major events.
As a Polish person, at first, I didn’t think much of it, given I did learn very similar representations of history in school, but I soon realised that this expe- rience was going to be way different from what I already knew. One thing is learning the raw knowl- edge of given events and a completely different one is listening to those very personal and trau- matic memories taken from one’s life. Personal recollections connect far better with the audi- ence, engaging them emotionally and allowing them to understand these events at a far deeper level. Listening to Mr. Bartnikowski’s account gave me new meaning to many stories and phrases I had heard previously. “For them we were just numbers” - a quote I used to simply understand as a fact - now forever changed to include the real pain heard through Mr. Bartnikowski’s voice. We usually learn about these people as a group, and ironically, that often means considering them as nothing more than numbers - but now, for the first time, those numbers became real individ- uals in my true perception. Something which was shocking and isn’t too often talked about is that
many prisoners in concentration camps were chil- dren, including Mr. Bartnikowski, who was only 13 years old. But the Nazis did not care - they treated him as if he was physically and mentally an adult. No soft treatment was given; he had to endure something many adults could not handle, let alone a child. During his whole speech, I had many thoughts running through my mind and I have to admit that I did cry a little. It was very hard to process every- thing logically, but most importantly emotionally. I tried very hard to even attempt to comprehend what he could have really felt then. I said it then and I will say it now. I feel like no matter how long I try, I will not be able to fully comprehend the full extent of the pain and suffering imposed by the
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