VOA慢速英语2019--波兰纪念奥斯威辛集中营解放75周年

Survivors² of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp prayed and cried Monday as they marked the 75th anniversary of its liberation. The Soviet³ army freed the prisoners there on January 27, 1945.

At a special ceremony, the survivors reminded today's leaders of the lessons of the war against Hitler. They noted⁴ that everyday people did horrible things to the prisoners held in camps like Auschwitz. They also warned of the signs of rising anti-Semitism and hatred⁵ in the world today.

Last living survivors

"We have with us the last living survivors, the last among those who saw the Holocaust⁶ with their own eyes," Polish President Andrzej Duda told those at the event.

Most of the 1.1 million people murdered by the Nazi⁷ German forces at Auschwitz were Jewish. Non-Jewish Poles, Russians and Roma also were imprisoned⁸ and killed there.

Around 200 survivors of the camp attended Monday's event. They had traveled from Israel, the United States, Australia, Peru, Russia and other countries. Many of them lost parents and grandparents in Auschwitz or other Nazi death camps. They returned to Poland with their own children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

Never again

Ronald Lauder, the head of the World Jewish Congress, led the ceremony along with Duda.

Lauder said he never thought he would see the spread of anti-Jewish messages worldwide again. He called anti-Semitism a "deadly virus" that must be stopped.

He ended his speech with a warning: "Do not let this happen again, to any people!"

The day before Monday's ceremony, the survivors walked through the camp where they had suffered hunger and illness and came close to death. Many of them leaned on their children and grandchildren for support.

The survivors said they had come to remember and share their stories with others. They also wanted to show that, in the end, the Nazis⁹ did not destroy them.

No graves for her parents

Ninety-two-year-old Yvonne Engelman was among the survivors who came to Poland for the anniversary. She traveled from her home in Australia. Family members from around the world joined her. She came in part in memory of her parents, who both died in the camp.

"I have no graves to go to and I know my parents were murdered here and burned. So this is how I pay homage¹⁰ to them," she said.

Englelman described how the Nazis brought her from a ghetto¹¹ in Czechoslovakia by cattle car. They then took her clothes, removed her hair and put her in a gas chamber¹². But for some reason, the gas chamber that day did not work. She went on to survive slave labor¹³ and a death march.

Jeanette Spiegel is a 96-year-old survivor¹. She was 20 years old when the Nazis took her to Auschwitz. She was there for nine months. Today she lives in New York City. She fears the increasing anti-Semitic violence in the United States.

She tried not to cry as she spoke¹⁴. She said, "Young people should understand that nothing is for sure, that some terrible things can happen and they have to be very careful. And that, God forbid, what happened to the Jewish people then should never be repeated."

Also on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at the Shoah Memorial in Paris. The memorial serves as the country's Holocaust museum. Macron warned about rising hate crimes in France, which increased 27 percent last year.

"That anti-Semitism is coming back is not the Jewish people's problem: It's all our problem, it's the nation's problem," Macron said.

Words in This Story

death camp – n. a kind of concentration camp, a type of prison where large numbers of people who are not soldiers are kept during a war and are usually forced to live in very bad conditions, and in the case of a death camp, are brought to be killed

anti-Semitism – n. hatred of Jewish people

lean – v. to rest on or against something or someone for support

grave – n. a hole in the ground for burying a dead body

homage – n. respect or honor

ghetto – n. a part of a city in which members of a particular group or race live usually in poor conditions

the Holocaust – n. the killing of millions of Jews and other people by the Nazis during World War II

1 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

6 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

7 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

8 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

9 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 homage   

n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬

参考例句：

• We pay homage to the genius of Shakespeare.我们对莎士比亚的天才表示敬仰。
• The soldiers swore to pay their homage to the Queen.士兵们宣誓效忠于女王陛下。

11 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

12 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

13 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。