Survivor Recalls Holocaust

Holocaust survivor Andrew Burian recounted his experiences in concentration camps during World War II to warn against the dangers of discrimination and to emphasize the importance of kindness, before a crowd of nearly 400 last night in Memorial Church.

Between the ages of 13 and 15, Burian spent time in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen, and Gunskirchen, concentration camps in Poland and Austria. Burian told his story to the crowd to fulfill his personal responsibility “as a witness” to history, he said.

“I urge you to do your part, to participate in the liberation of the human race to whatever extent so the Holocaust shall never happen again,” he said.

Burian’s granddaughter Daina S. Anhalt ’11 said that it was important that the Harvard community hear his account.

“My grandfather’s message is both urgent and universal,” said Anhalt, who organized the event—sponsored by the Freshman Dean’s Office, the Harvard Foundation, Harvard Hillel, and the Faith & Life Forum—after a few of her friends expressed an interest in her grandfather’s story.

While Burian expressed the importance of sharing his memories, he also said that hearing them was not the same as experiencing them.

“It will be hard for you to understand what was the capacity of killing and gassing,” he said, recalling his time in the concentration camps. “The commandant was pleased to report that in the past 24 hours he had processed over 22,000 Jews.”

But Burian said that people’s actions could not be easily categorized as either good or bad. He described an officer who, surprised and angered to see him still alive, forced him out of a group that was marked to be killed, by beating him.

“Intentionally or not—I say in his anger, my wife says on purpose—he kicked me out, cracked a few ribs, but saved my life.”

Director of Development and Administration for Memorial Church Justin Schoolmaster said that the church was fitting to Burian’s speech.

“Memorial Church has always been a place for having academic discussions about religion and society as a whole,” he said. “This will be a great opportunity to see a dark period in history through the eyes of someone who lived through it.”

At the end of his talk, Burian urged the crowd to take his story and apply it to a modern context.

“I beg you not to be complacent about the evil of discrimination or to be tolerant of baseless hatred regardless of how it is cloaked or disguised.”