…..as he tours Auschwitz, the factory of death
Krakow, December 8, 2018
Zambia’s peace and political stability, one of the major prerequisites for foreign direct investment, must be guarded jealously, says His Excellency Anthony Mukwita, Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Zambian envoy made the remarks shortly after an emotional tour of Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland where NAZI Germany gassed and killed through firing squads 1.2 million Jews and innocent Poles, Hungarian and French people suspected to be sympathetic to Jews.
“The indescribable cruelty and gruesome ignorant acts of senseless violence that took place in this camp is the most eloquent argument ever made in history as to why human beings anywhere in the world must guard peace and stability with intense jealousy”, Ambassador Mukwita said.
A father of two young boys, the Zambian envoy was evidently touched and shaken to see on display shoes of little children, and a heap of women’s hair who were gassed to death in chambers under the pretext that they were being sent to take a shower.
Before they were gassed to death, women had their long hair shaved, which was later sold and used to make linen.
There is a heap of clutches and other walking aides used by the physically disabled Jews who, by virtue of their physical disabilities were obvious gas targets because NAZI extremists regarded them as less human who were better off dead.
The evidence of one of the worst forms of human cruelty unleashed against fellow human beings is all over the camp among them personal items such as suitcases, combs, cooking utensils, sleeping facilities, reading glasses, and many more, belongings of the victims.
The walls are littered with photographs of victims with some depicting the arrival of trains at the camp, a selection of victims going for immediate slaughter among them children under the age of ten.
“This is why President Lungu has always prioritized peace in his practice of politics”, Ambassador Mukwita said, adding, “he gave up the instruments of power peacefully which were left with him by the late Michael Sata, the fifth President of Zambia”.
In a similar vein, he noted that Presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Rupiah Banda also handed over power peacefully to their successors sending a message to all Zambians that peace was important for the existence of all life forms.
Ambassador Mukwita appealed to Zambians to treat every human being with dignity and respect warning that the forces of evil are potentially resident in the life of every individual and could be unleashed any time if mismanaged.
The senior diplomat arrived in Poland to attend the UN organized climate change conference that opened on the 2nd of December and ends on the 14th.
President Edgar Lungu was represented at the meeting by the Honorable Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Ms. Jean Kapata who was accompanied by Ministry Permanent Secretary Mr.Trevor Kaunda.
Ambassador Mukwita took off sometime to visit the concentration camp located 65 km outside Krakow, the former capital of Poland to get a first hand feel of what human cruelty is capable of doing against fellow human beings if differences escalated unabated.
An estimated 6 million Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler’s NAZI Germany in the early 1940s blaming them for any misfortune imagined no matter how illogical it was.
In several parts of Europe where the Jews lived, present governments have established museums and other memorial facilities to remind the current and future generations of the dark past in the hope they may always guard the peace and stability being enjoyed today.
As a reminder of the importance of history, a quote from George Santanyana is posted on the walls of one of the buildings at the concentration camp, which reads, “If we don’t learn from the past, we’re bound to repeat the mistakes”.
Recently, CNN conducted a poll across Europe, which sadly revealed that anti—Semitisim or hatred for Jews is on the rise with some younger respondents claiming they had never even heard of the holocaust in which 6 million Jews died. The study was followed by a documentary that included scenes from Auschwitz concentration camp with its gas chambers that were described by one Jewish Rabi as the “factory of death”.