Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

SURVIVORS AND LIBERATORS | SPEECHES   141 Survivors and Liberators ©Dachau Memorial / G. Hassel Honoured Fellow Survivors, Event Hosts and Guests, My attendance at this 78th commemoration of the liberation of Dachau is indeed laden with much trepidation, as it brings back horrendous memories of persecution, back-breaking slave labour, starvation and always the threat of death by the Nazis’ brutal hands. This nefarious history must never be forgotten by the world! When at last liberation came, it was surreal. Yes, there was   joy and even exhilaration at the sight of the long-awaited   American forces, our blessed rescuers.What they encountered was sheer horror beyond anything a human can comprehend! Piles of naked corpses everywhere… These memories must never be forgotten or denied! Let us hope that we will learn this bitter lesson that FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE. It has to be defended in every generation!   May God Bless the survivors and their American liberators here with us! Amen. David Lenga 78th anniversary  of the liberation of Dachau  30 April 2023 David Lenga was born in Ł ód ź , Poland, in 1927. He was deported to the local ghetto together with his Jewish family. In 1944, he was transferred to the Auschwitz-  Birkenau extermination camp and, later that year, to the Kaufering subcamp complex of Dachau. He died on 25 January 2024.