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Pope Francis Receives Survivors of Auschwitz and Current Volkswagen Apprentices in the Vatican


  • Audience in connection with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

  • Guests present “Gift of Remembrance” to Pontiff




Pope Francis received a delegation of the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) including survivors of the former extermination camp from Poland, the Czech Republic, France and Germany in the Vatican yesterday. The audience was also attended by representatives of the International Youth Meeting Centre at Oświęcim/Auschwitz as well as three Volkswagen apprentices. The occasion for the meeting in Rome was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.


IAC Vice-President Christoph Heubner had invited apprentices from Volkswagen to join the IAC delegation: Meryem-Gül Aday (24), who is training as an automation electronics engineer in Brunswick, Vincenzo Lanzilotti (22), a budding automotive mechatronics technician from Wolfsburg, and Till Schumann (19), who is training as a mechatronics technician with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hanover. These young people, who belong to different religions and denominations, had worked on the maintenance of the monument in Poland last summer.


Prof. Felix Kolmer, an Auschwitz survivor from Prague, said in the Vatican: “This audience with the Pope is an honor for us. Together, we remembered what happened in Auschwitz and what we witnessed. We also remembered what we stand for after Auschwitz. We survivors have all experienced atrocities ourselves, which is why we support Pope Francis in his appeal for humanity and a helping hand for refugees.”


Together, the visitors to the Vatican handed the “Gift of Remembrance” over to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. With this statuette, the IAC honors outstanding personalities who actively support respect for human rights and continued remembrance of the victims of Auschwitz.


This sculpture, in the shape of an upside down letter “B”, is a reminder of the resistance symbol adopted by camp inmates from the infamous inscription “Arbeit macht frei” (work will set you free) above the main gate at Auschwitz extermination camp. The idea for this “Gift of Remembrance” comes from French artist Michèle Déodat, who was also a member of the delegation. The sculpture is hand-crafted by Volkswagen apprentices in Hanover on the basis of her design.

Christoph Heubner emphasized: “The survivors of Auschwitz have experienced the depths to which people can sink in ethical terms. This is why survivors have dedicated themselves to an education effort for decades and have placed their trust in young people. They have tirelessly shown them how essential respect for human dignity is both for the individual and for humanity as a whole. The Pope has recognized their lifetime achievements. The meeting in the Vatican honored the victims and the survivors. We will remember them and honor both them and their liberators 70 years ago: in the German Bundestag in Berlin and at the Auschwitz Memorial Site on January 27, 2015.”


Meryem-Gül Aday (24), who is training as an automation electronics engineer with Volkswagen in Brunswick, underscored: “Auschwitz clearly demonstrates how people who counted themselves among the intellectual and political elite participated in the machinery of murder without any doubts or qualms. We must therefore see Auschwitz as a memorial for humanity.”


Vincenzo Lanzilotti (22), a budding automotive mechatronics technician from Wolfsburg, said: “I was baptized a Catholic but I am not so sure about my beliefs. Now I met Pope Francis, who I have admired for some time. During the audience, I felt the special aura of the Pope. I do not know precisely what it is but I can take a feeling of considerable warmth and friendliness away from this meeting. Pope Francis actively supports human dignity and strongly opposes anti-Semitism and forgetfulness.”


Till Schumann (19), who is training as a mechatronics technician with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hanover, underlined: “The Pope has a clear message for everyone: no more xenophobia, no more crimes against humanity of the type which were perpetrated in Auschwitz. For me, it was a great honor to take part in the presentation of the “B” crafted in Hanover to Pope Francis on behalf of many other apprentices.”


Memorial Site work and youth meetings in Oświęcim / Auschwitz are a joint project of Volkswagen, initiated by the Works Council and supported by the company, and the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC). Over the past 27 years, about 2,600 young people from Germany and Poland, both vocational school students and apprentices from the Volkswagen Group, have taken part in youth meetings in Poland. Together, they have helped to maintain the Auschwitz Memorial Site. Since 2008, more than 300 master craftsmen and craftswomen as well as other managers from the Group have also taken part. The program includes meetings with contemporary witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust and the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz. The IAC provides support for these meetings and study visits. They are a firm component of Volkswagen’s corporate culture of remembrance that is supported equally strongly by employee representative bodies and management.




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