Among the many international vistors to Auschwitz last week was an unusual interfaith group comprised of members of the both the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Muslim World League (MWL).
In an interview The Times of Israel, AJC CEO David Harris claimed it was “the most senior delegation of Muslim religious leaders” to ever visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, with over 60 participants representing some 28 countries touring the former Nazi death camp.
After a memorial service held near the site of the former crematorium, the head of the Mecca-based MWL and former Saudi justice minister Mohammed al-Issa spoke of how he „and my colleagues, the Islamic leaders, are deeply touched and affected by these horrible crimes and pictures we’ve seen throughout these monuments”.
al-Issa went on to highlight the need for the international community “to deal with these kinds of horrible crimes and to make sure none of this will happen again. Our world will not be able to achieve peace unless we have a strong will together to fight evil.”
The significance of the visit was highlighted by the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, who noted that “hav[ing] a major Muslim leader openly saying that the Holocaust happened, that it was horrible, that we have to remember it — this is a huge change…It is historic that this level of a Muslim delegation is coming to Auschwitz for the express purpose of mourning and paying homage to the Jewish genocide that happened here.”
Source: Times of Israel, AP
Biography of Polish hero wins prestigious award
Former war reporter Jack Fairweather’s book “The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz” has won the 2019 Costa Book of the Year, one of the UK’s premier literary awards.
The biography traces the story of Polish army officer Witold Pilecki, who risked his life to sneak into Auschwitz in order to produce the first comprehensive Allied intelligence report on the Holocaust. He survived over two years of brutality, disease, and starvation in the camp before eventually escaping in April 1943 and later fighting in the Warsaw Uprising in the autumn of 1944. After the war, Pilecki was accused of spying on the Soviet Union and executed in Poland by the Communists on May 25th, 1948.
The head of the jury for the Costa Book Awards, Sian Williams, praised the book, saying: “It reads like a thriller…this is a story that none of us had heard before and it deserve[s] to be shouted about. It’s an extraordinary book”.
Source: Radio Poland
Gdańsk athlete sets Olympic qualification record
Table tennis star and Gdańsk native Natalia Partyka broke records last week by qualifying, along with the Polish women’s team, for a record number of Olympic Games.
Since 2008, when table tennis was included as an official Olympic event, the Polish women’s team has qualified for every Olympics, a streak they upheld at the ITTF World Team Qualification Tournament in Portugal last Thursday.
As a member of the team, Partyka set an additional record for having competed in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, making her Tokyo 2020 qualification a record-setting tenth Olympic appearance for the 30-year-old.
She is one of only six athletes who have competed in both the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year, and one of the most decorated. She currently holds 5 gold medals, one silver, and a bronze from the Paralympic Games, and is ranked in the top 100 women’s table tennis players worldwide.
Source: Radio Gdańsk, ittf.com
Last chance to apply for business plan competition
The deadline to apply for the 18th edition of the annual “Gdynia Business Plan” competition is this Friday, January 31st.
Participants who pass the application phase will learn essential skills for planning, budgeting, pitching ideas, finding clients, and understanding legal issues pertaining to small businesses.
Contestants who make it past the initial screening phase will have until March 31, 2020 to submit their finished business plan to the jury, with finalists being announced in June.
The „Gdynia Business Plan Competition” has been organized by the City of Gdynia since 2003 with some several hundred people taking part in the competition each year.
More information is available at the competition website HERE
Weather
Today will be mostly cloudy and overcast with rain continuing into the afternoon and winds blowing in from the southwest. Temperatures will peak around 5 degrees Celsius, or 41 degrees Fahrenheit, with the perceived temperature closer to freezing. Atmospheric pressure will increase as the day progresses, with tomorrow morning set to be partly cloudy with rain and clouds returning in the late afternoon.
Elizabeth Peck
