OSWIECIM, Poland — The voices of Auschwitz survivors praying for their murdered loved ones reverberated Monday amid the barracks and barbed wire of the former Nazi death camp, with one survivor crying out in a pained voice: "I don't want to come here anymore!"
The survivors were paying private homage to their relatives and the millions of others killed in the Holocaust a day ahead of official commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet army's liberation of the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
For some, it was their first time back since the end of World War II.
Rose Schindler, 85, who was among 12 survivors from a family of more than 300 people, returned once 20 years ago but said she wanted a final visit to mourn her parents and four siblings who were killed in the Holocaust. She was separated from them upon arrival in Auschwitz with no time to say goodbye and survived because she was selected to perform slave labor.
"I have no graves for my mother and sisters and brother, my father. So this somehow it is a way to say goodbye," said Schindler.
Together, several of the survivors said kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, next to the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign that hangs above the entrance to the camp.