It is with a broken heart that we share with you details of Marian Turski, z”l following his passing at the age of 98 years old. 

Marian Turski (left) speaking to fellow survivor Ben Helfgott, z”l, officials from the German government and executives from the Claims Conference during a tour of Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away., an exhibition of Auschwitz artifacts at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. 

Born Moshe Turbowicz in 1926, in Druskininkai, modern Lithuania, Marian was only fourteen when he and his parents were confined and forced to live in the Łódź Ghetto. In August 1944, the Turbowicz family was deported to Auschwitz, where Marian’s father and brother were murdered upon arrival. Marian survived a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp in January 1945 and was liberated at Theresienstadt, after surviving a second death march from Buchenwald, but lost a total of 39 relatives in the Holocaust. Marian endured the Łódź Ghetto and Auschwitz with his boyhood friends, Roman Kent, z’’l and Noach Flug, z”l.

Returning to Poland after the Holocaust, Marian reunited with his mother and married Halina Paszkowska-Turska, z”l, a fellow Holocaust survivor. In 1958, he became the editor of the history section of the weekly news magazine Polityka,a position he held for nearly 70 years. In 1965, while on sabbatical to the United States, Marian joined Martin Luther King Jr.’s march from Selma to Montgomery against racial segregation. Marian dedicated his life to conserving the history of Poland’s Jews, converting his traumatic past into action to provide a small measure of justice to the victims of the Holocaust.

Marian Turski, z”l (right) with his boyhood friend and fellow survivor of the Łódź Ghetto and Auschwitz, Roman Kent, z’’l

Marian was a longtime member of the Claims Conference negotiating delegation with the German government. After years of working on its establishment, he co-founded and was Chair of the Council of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, located on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. Marian also served as Chair both of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland and Association of Jewish Veterans and Victims of the Second World War, as well as President of the International Auschwitz Committee.

Marian was the recipient of numerous distinctions, including the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Officer’s Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

At the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, Marian gave an emotional and stirring speech: “Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It began with small forms of persecution of Jews. It happened, it means it can happen anywhere. That is why human rights and democratic constitutions must be defended. The eleventh commandment is important: Don’t be indifferent. Do not be indifferent when you see historical lies, do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated, do not be indifferent when power violates a social contract.”

You can watch his speech on YouTube.

Just a few weeks ago, Marian was again the key speaker at the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. At that occasion, he lamented, “Those who lived to see freedom, there were hardly, hardly, none. So few. And now, there is only a handful.”

May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Gideon Taylor
Greg Schneider