Saturday, January 28, 2012
THEN
Jan. 28, 1573, in an effort to preserve religious tolerance in Poland—a place known for providing refuge to those persecuted for their faith at the time—the Articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed. The articles write religious freedom into Polish law. With the death of the last king of the Jagiellonian dynasty a year earlier, legal reforms are incomplete as the political system in a state of flux, shifting to an elective monarchy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Articles are signed as a proactive measure to preserve the country’s tolerance to continue to offer refuge to the religious refugees from Turkey, Moscow, and Western Europe, all rife with religious conflict. At the time, Poland’s population consists of various ethnic groups including Poles, Russians, Jews, Germans Lithuanians, and Georgians, all provided an environment to peacefully practice their beliefs.
NOW
On Friday, the 67th anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp, Kazimierz Smolen—an Auschwitz survivor and former director of the memorial site—died at the age of 91. Smolen served as director of the memorial between 1955-1990. The remnants of the notorious camp near Krakow, Poland officially became a memorial two years after the end of World War II. In 2005, the United Nations declared January 27, the day the Allied forces liberated the camp, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
