Page 138 - Witness

Miriam (née Friedman) Ziegler, second from left, showing the number on her arm (A16891), the day of her liberation from Auschwitz at nine years of age.
Miriam # A16891
On January 27, 1945, the Russian Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. About 7,000 people remained in the camp, too sick or too young to go on the Death March, including 52 children under nine years of age. One of the children, Miriam Ziegler, appears in a famous picture taken on the day of liberation, showing the number on her arm. In 2015, she returned to Auschwitz to commemorate the 70 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – and her
own liberation as well.
Miriam Ziegler: (looking at famous photograph) “I feel very lucky, very blessed, that at that age I could save myself. This is when we saw the Russian soldiers coming in on their trucks and walking and marching. We couldn’t believe it. No more Nazis over us. My feelings were ‘Now what? What’s going to be next? I’m nobody. Where am I going?’ I’m wearing a kerchief. My hair is very short because we were shaven completely. I see that famous picture of me in magazines, in the encyclopedia, but I can’t believe it’s me. I know it’s me, I recognize myself, but no feelings – just emptiness.”
When the Russian soldiers asked for the children’s names, Miriam pointed to her tattoo, the only child in the photo to do so. “I was so used to responding to my number,” she explains. “I was standing there, numb, because I didn’t know where my family was. I didn’t know where I was going to end up.
“I feel it is my duty to go back. I know there are not many survivors left to speak, and I need to speak on behalf of the millions who were killed, who had no voice. And I need to tell my story to future generations, so they will never forget.
“I don’t know why I was picked and why I’m alive. This happened to many millions of people. I’m the lucky one. I feel now I have to talk about it. I don’t know how much longer I can talk about it.”
Miriam Ziegler returning to Auschwitz on the 70th anniversary of her liberation. She was imprisoned in the barracks where medical experiments were performed.
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