Schwarzenegger calls for 'fight against hate' during Auschwitz visit

Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and ex-governor of California, visits Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, which was built by Nazi Germany near Oswiecim in Poland on September 28, 2022.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Hollywood star, visited Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz in Poland on Wednesday (28 September). He pledged to fight hatred, discrimination, and keep alive the story of what happened there between 1940-1945.

Schwarzenegger, 75 years old, is Austrian-born and the son of a Nazi party member who served in the German army during World War Two.

Simon Bergson, a former governor of California and Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Foundation Chairman, was a son of Holocaust survivors. He highlighted the power of prejudice to be eradicated in a matter of years.

He told reporters that he (Bergson), was born in post-second world war to a wonderful Jewish family. He also revealed that he was the son of a soldier who had fought in the Nazi war.

"One generation later, here we are... We both fight prejudice, hatred and discrimination."

Over 1.1 million people, mostly Jews perished in Auschwitz' gas chambers, and from starvation, cold, and disease. This Auschwitz facility was set up by the Nazis in Poland, occupied during World War Two.

Schwarzenegger entered the camp via the main gate, which bears the phrase "Arbeit macht frei", meaning "Work makes you free". The Auschwitz Memorial Museum and Crematorium were then opened to Schwarzenegger.

He lit candles at the "Death Wall", where German soldiers shot many prisoners, and at the monument to victims at Birkenau Section of the camp.

He also met Holocaust survivor Lidia Mazymowicz during the visit, who was three years ago an inmate at the camp.

Schwarzenegger said: "People like her can help to us never stop telling that tale about what happened here eighty years ago...this is a story we must keep alive."

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