Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 28, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Sign up to get this weekly newsletter straight to your inbox at winnipegfreepress.com/email APPLAUSE A WEEKLY REVIEW OF THE WINNIPEG ARTS SCENE NEVER MISS YOUR FAVOURITE ARTISTS, PLAYWRIGHTS, ACTORS, MUSICIANS, DANCERS & MORE GET THE NEWSLETTER SERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872. FOREVER WITH YOUR SUPPORT. TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2025 WEATHER A FEW FLURRIES. HIGH 3 — LOW -10 BUSINESS PEAVEY MART ‘OBVIOUSLY’ CLOSING / B5 Auschwitz survivors 80 years later fear rising hatred could bring on another Holocaust ‘I’m afraid that it can happen again’ K RAKOW — As she prepared to return to Auschwitz-Birkenau on Monday, Miriam Ziegler vividly recalled how it felt to be a little girl orphaned by the Nazis and left alone in a world ruined by war. Eighty years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, the 89-year-old Ziegler said Monday the rising tide of “hatred” around the world makes her fear that history might be ready to repeat itself. “I’m afraid that it can happen again. For my children, for my grandchildren,” she said. “I was lucky enough to survive.” Ziegler and fellow Canadian Howard Chandler, 96, were among the Auschwitz survivors in atten- dance Monday as the world came together to mark the 80th anniver- sary of the death camp’s liberation. Dozens of world leaders, including King Charles, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were in Poland for the event. While the assembled leaders were invited to lay wreaths and candles, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum allowed only survivors to speak during the ceremony itself. Polish President Andrzej Duda spoke before the official event after laying a wreath on what is known as the “death wall,” where Nazis assem- bled their prisoners in lines to be shot and killed. He said Poland preserves sites like Auschwitz so that the world can remember the lessons of the past. Ziegler said the world may be for- getting the lessons of the Holocaust now. “I have to keep telling the story. It shouldn’t happen again. It shouldn’t happen, doesn’t matter — any nation,” Ziegler said. Ziegler was placed in an orphanage after the camp was freed and eventu- ally moved to Canada. She said that while it’s hard to return to those dark memories, she believes God spared her life so that she could tell the world what she witnessed. More than six million Jews — including Ziegler’s family — were killed in the Holocaust as the Nazi regime sought to wipe out Europe’s Jewish population during the Second World War. Historians estimate more than one million people, mostly Jews, were killed in the Auschwitz-Birke- nau extermination camp. Chandler recalled the day he watched German soldiers come to his village and force Jewish men to shave off their beards in public. “The Catholic people, our neigh- bours, were standing on the sidewalk laughing. There was one family that lived across from us … she says, ‘Don’t be so joyful with what they’re doing to the Jews. They’re going to start with the Jews, they’re going to finish with us,’” Chandler said. “Very smart woman.” DAVID BAXTER PHOTOS BY SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS Canadian Holocaust survivor Miriam Ziegler holds up a photo of her as a child (circled) in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as she marks 80 years since its liberation. Right, she places a candle at the camp, which has been preserved by the Polish people. ‘I have to keep telling the story. It shouldn’t happen again’ — Canadian Holocaust survivor Miriam Ziegler ● AUSCHWITZ, CONTINUED ON A2 Conservation officers add eyes, ears to border security NEAR EMERSON — Nearly a dozen conservation officers are now pa- trolling along the Canada-United States border in hopes of increasing security and responding to threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. Premier Wab Kinew announced Monday conservation officers sta- tioned in Winnipeg, Steinbach, Mani- tou, Sprague, Boissevain and Virden are now patrolling between ports of entry, focusing on secondary roads and backcountry areas, and will provide “humanitarian” support should the border find more people attempting to cross from the U.S. into Canada, particularly in dangerous weather conditions. “We’re asking for them to be de- ployed into areas to help us just be that additional set of eyes and ears,” Kinew told reporters at a news conference near Emerson. Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on incom- ing goods unless Canada works to prevent illegal border crossings into the U.S. and to decrease the amount of drugs being smuggled across. Those tariffs could be implemented on Feb. 1, Trump has said. Kinew said the conservation offi- cers, who are typically tasked with enforcement regarding wildlife, will work with RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency. The province is spending $360,000 to re-deploy the officers, along with funding for snow- mobiles and other utility vehicles. An- other $460,000 will go toward overtime for RCMP officers at the border. Conservation officers will only inter- vene in cases when they don’t suspect further criminal activity, like drug trafficking. In those cases, officers will be asked to report to Border Ser- vices and RCMP. “If you see somebody trying to cross an open plain like this without gloves and hats on, then that would be a situation where there’d be that direct intervention,” Kinew said. The premier said the move was part of the province’s planned response to Trump “at a time like this, when Man- itobans are looking for reassurance,” but was also a response to calls border communities have made for years. “If we were to go to Gretna, or Alto- na, or Emerson, or any community in the area, people will tell you they want to have a secure border, but they’ll also tell you they have a humanitari- an heart for some of those very, very difficult situations we’ve heard of,” Kinew said. Six people were arrested trying to cross the border into Manitoba Jan. 14, days before the U.S. president was sworn into office. RCMP said the six weren’t dressed for the weather, which dipped below -20 C. Emerson-Franklin Reeve David Carlson said any additional boots on the ground near the border would help put his community at ease. “People get themselves into a really bad situation quite often, and we don’t want any more tragedies out here with regards to people either losing their lives or being injured by the weather,” he said. The Manitoba Government and Gen- eral Employees’ Union said no extra officers are being hired specifically for border duties, and no extra training has been offered to existing workers. Will patrol between ports of entry; no training offered, union says MALAK ABAS ● BORDER, CONTINUED ON A3 ● MORE COVERAGE ON A2, 5 ;