Sculpture will commemorate honorary citizen Justin Sonder
Press invitation: 30 January, 2 p.m., Council Chamber in the Town Hall, Markt 1
On Monday, 30 January - the 90th anniversary of the National Socialist seizure of power - at 2 pm, the International Auschwitz Committee and Lord Mayor Sven Schulze will present a special project in honour of Justin Sonder at a press conference.
Christoph Heuber from the International Auschwitz Committee will be joined by Justin Sonder's daughter, Kerstin Claus.
Representatives of the media are cordially invited to the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, Markt 1.
The International Auschwitz Committee would like to honour Justin Sonder, an honorary citizen of Chemnitz, in his home town. The committee cites the endless energy, friendliness and clarity with which Justin Sonder has championed the memory of those murdered and persecuted in the Holocaust and under the Nazi dictatorship as the reason for honouring him. Justin Sonder was always ready to talk and listen.
The committee is therefore planning to erect a sculpture in memory of Justin Sonder - a bench on which he sits, facing the present and those who sit with him
Justin Sonder, who died in November 2020 at the age of 95, was born in Chemnitz in 1925. On 27 February 1943, Justin Sonder was arrested and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There he survived unimaginable conditions, hunger, beatings, forced labour and a total of 17 selections. After several death marches, Justin Sonder finally reached Wetterfeld in Franconia in April 1945, where he was liberated by the American army on 23 April 1945. He returned to his home town with his father on 19 June 1945.
Justin Sonder held more than 500 events with thousands of schoolchildren. In his talks, he recounted his horrific experiences. Despite the suffering he endured, he had not lost his humanity. With his talks about his time in Auschwitz, he brought history to life and made it tangible. His message to the younger generation: The following generations, for whom peace and democracy always seemed a matter of course, must ensure time and again that a crime against humanity such as that of National Socialism cannot be repeated.