‘… nearly a month after the 79th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz… Germany’s Catholic bishops meeting in the city of Augsburg strongly condemned the rise of ethnic nationalism and right-wing extremism in German society…’
YES, both Pasig City and Los Baños observed their 79th Liberation Days (February 19 and 23) helmed by Mayors Vico Sotto and Anthony “Ton” Genuino, respectively. And the Descendants of Hunters ROTC Guerillas, Inc. (led by David M. Ingles) were there (Bantayog ng Kagitingan, Caruncho Avenue, Barangay San Nicolas in Pasig and Charles Fuller Baker Hall across the UPLB Freedom Park).
“Pasig played an especially crucial part in the wartime Hunters’ linkages of intelligence networks, troop movements and gun-running operations,” said Jesus Terry Adevoso, who also thanked Pasig officials and Rep. Roman Romulo for dedicating their new multi-purpose building in Rosario, Pasig in the name of the Hunters ROTC Guerillas.
Adevoso said: “In the course of the World War II Liberation Campaign in Southern Tagalog conducted by the Hunters guerillas jointly with Allied Air, Naval and Land forces that made their way toward Manila, the following areas were freed from foreign invaders as of 2/20/1945: Nasugbu, Batangas; Tagaytay, Cavite; Laguna (Santa Rosa, Binan, Calamba, Cabuyao, San Pedro); Rizal (Muntinlupa, Taguig, Pateros, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Nichols, Guadalupe, Nielsen Field, Fort McKinley, parts of Pasay). By-passed during this long battle-scarred journey of the Liberators was the UP Los Banos internment camp where 2,147 civilian foreigners had been languishing under heavy Japanese guard for over two years.
The SWPA-AIB had conveyed their fear that the internees, much like their counterparts in the UST Internment camp in Espana, Manila, could be massacred in a genocidal frenzy by Japanese soldiers let loose on Manila residents. Thus did the Hunters became involved in the Raid and Rescue of those 2,147 civilians. After planning their moves in secret meetings over several previous months, the Hunters’ attack force struck at the UPLB internment area on February 23, 1945 and resoundingly succeeded in trouncing the Japanese and getting the internees out to safe grounds.”
These Luzon celebrations came at the tail of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, an official occasion of the United Nations for which Dennis Francis, President of the General Assembly, remarked: “27 January marks 79 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Today, we honor the lives of the 6 million Jewish people, Roma, Sinti, and countless others who suffered and perished during the horrors of the Shoah… We cannot be complacent. We see an alarming surge in hate speech across the world while rising antisemitism and xenophobia have stoked fears that ‘Auschwitz is only sleeping’ — as Ceija Stojka, a survivor of Roma descent, once described it.” In New York City, 26 January 2024, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned: “The antisemitism that fueled the Holocaust did not start with the Nazis. Nor did it end with their defeat… Today, we are witnessing hate spreading at alarming speed. Online, it has moved from the margins to the mainstream… We are determined to fight it in all its forms… For the United Nations, [it is] a foundational mission.”
These Luzon celebrations can be more relevant when paired with UNGA Resolution A.RES.76.250 (adopted 20 January 2022) whereby the General Assembly recalled that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted in order to avoid the repetition of those committed by the Nazi regime and “Commends those Member States which have actively engaged in preserving those sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labor camps, killing sites and prisons during the Holocaust, as well as similar places operated by Nazi-allied regimes, their accomplices or auxiliaries.”
The governments of Pasig City and Los Banos as well as Taguig and Manila will do well to incorporate the following aspects of historical reality: “Authority to decide about life or death, the feeling of absolute power and the permission of their supervisors led to the development of extreme brutality of female SS guards towards the prisoners in Auschwitz concentration camp. Beating, torture, being chased by dogs, humiliation and selection became part of the daily routine in the female camp. The most brutal female SS guards were: Oberaufseherin Maria Mandl, Rapportfí¼hrerin Margot Drechsel, Arbeitsdienstfí¼hrerin Elisabeth Hasse and guards Therese Brandl and Luise Danz.” [Women Working For The SS: Attitude Towards Prisoners; http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/2021_nadzorczynie_en/]
1. “Germans’ treatment of Soviet POWs constituted a violation of any international law conventions: they were forced to long marches to transit camps, or transported on train for many days without food or beverages. In POW camps, they were kept for a long time without any shelter, in catastrophic sanitary conditions, and receiving inadequate amounts of food which resulted in chronic hunger. Such treatment resulted in the critical physical condition of the majority of the prisoners, diseases, and consequently high mortality in the camps. By early December 1941, around 1.4 million Soviet POWs lost their lives.” [The Fate Of Soviet Prisoners In Auschwitz: Introduction; http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_20_jency/]
2. “Similarly, the surgeries conducted on inmates by German physicians with no proper training have also to be considered experiments. They were absolutely unnecessary from the medical point of view, and only conducted by individual physicians for training purposes. Most such surgeries were performed by Friedrich Entress, Fritz Klein, Horst Fischer, and Heinz Thilo. The location where they practiced was the Hospital Block No. 21.
In their testimonies, surgeon inmates recall conducting pneumothorax procedures in patients with tuberculosis, and spinal punctures in meningitis patients, as well as other procedures whose rationality is hard to determine.” [Medical Crimes At Kl Auschwitz: Practising — Surgery; http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/2022_medycyna_en/]
3. “01 May 1943, a small Austrian group, together with a handful of Polish communists and socialists, set up a clandestine organization under the name of the Auschwitz Combat Group (Kampfgruppe Auschwitz, Polish: Grupa Bojowa OÅ›wiÄ™cim). The Pole who represented the Polish Socialist Party in the group was Józef Cyrankiewicz. In addition, Lucjan Motyka became a member and activist in the latter half of 1943. Another Polish communist incarcerated in the camp and belonging to the Kampfgruppe Auschwitz was Tadeusz HoÅ‚uj. Contacts were set up with the Soviet, French, and Jewish groups.” [The Resistance Movement In Auschwitz: Left-Wing Organisations; http://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_16_ruch_oporu/]
Mayors Vico Sotto and Anthony “Ton” Genuino may also note that nearly a month after the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and while they were celebrating their cities’ liberation, Germany’s Catholic bishops meeting in the city of Augsburg strongly condemned the rise of ethnic nationalism and right-wing extremism in German society, making an explicit reference to the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). [https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-catholic-church-speaks-out-against-far-right/a-68352341]
