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Collective memory of Auschwitz ‘very important’ for Poles

PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp 26.01.2015 11:58
A new survey released by CBOS pollsters reveals that the overwhelming majority of Poles believe that the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau holds an important place in the nation’s collective memory.
The entrance to the former death camp of Birkenau. Photo: wikipedia/A. CeledonThe entrance to the former death camp of Birkenau. Photo: wikipedia/A. Celedon

The poll comes on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by Red Army soldiers on 27 January 1945.

According to the survey, 93 percent of Poles believe that the memory of the camp – where over one million people died at the hands of the Nazi occupiers – is important for them, of which 43 percent stated that such memory is of ‘great importance’.

The poll reveals that Poles’ attitudes towards the former concentration camp have not changed greatly over the past two decades.

For some Poles, Auschwitz-Birkenau is part of their family narrative, with almost one in ten (nine percent) declaring that a family member was a camp inmate, with four percent stating that a close one died there.

Almost one in five respondents (17 percent) stated that a family member had been held at a German camp during World War II, with 13 percent stating that family members had been held captive in Nazi German POW camps.

The CBOS poll was conducted between 8-14 January 2015 on a representative selection of 1,005 adult Poles. (jb)

Source: PAP

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