Speaking at a remembrance ceremony in southern Poland, the 97-year-old former prisoner warned of resurging hatred in today's world and said indifference had once led to catastrophe.
"I see violence that is once again being justified," Offen said at the event held inside the former Central Sauna building at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site.
"I see people who believe their anger has greater value than another human being’s life," he added. "I say this as someone who has seen where indifference leads. And I say it because I believe—truly believe—that we can make a different choice."
The ceremony was attended by 21 former prisoners, along with Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska, as well as representatives of Jewish and Roma communities and foreign diplomats.
Offen was born in Kraków, southern Poland, and survived the Jewish ghetto and five Nazi camps, including Auschwitz, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He lost his parents and sister in the Holocaust. Two of his brothers survived after fighting under Polish General Władysław Anders.
After the war, Offen emigrated from Poland but he recently returned to Kraków, which he described as one of the safest and most welcoming places in Europe for Jews.
He urged listeners to treat memory not as a burden but as a guiding light.
“We, the witnesses, will soon be gone, but I believe that this light will remain with you," Offen said.
Also speaking was Yossi Matias, a senior Google executive and representative of donors to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which supports conservation work at the memorial site.
Matias said the world was transitioning from an era of living memory to one of historical memory, warning of the danger of silence as survivor voices fade.
He added technology can be a powerful tool for education and remembrance, stressing that the phrase "never again" must be an active commitment, not a passive hope.
Auschwitz Museum Director Piotr Cywiński addressed the survivors, calling their experiences the foundation of collective memory and a moral compass in times of instability.
"Your experience has become our treasure—a guide, a warning, and a source of strength," he said.
During the ceremony, memorial candles were lit at symbolic locations across the former camp. The event ended with a joint Jewish-Christian prayer, the PAP news agency reported.
The Polish president said on Tuesday that Auschwitz stands as a symbol of the barbarism of Nazi ideology and of indifference in Germany and elsewhere to the deaths of innocent people during World War II.
At least 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including about 1 million Jews.
The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945. It has since become the most powerful symbol of the Holocaust and Nazi crimes against Jews, as well as against Poles, Roma and people of many other nationalities.
January 27 is observed worldwide as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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Source: IAR, PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Agnieszka Bielawska.