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A delegation led by Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu and the president of the Parliament of Bizkaia, Ana Otadui, will travel next week to Auschwitz to plant a sapling of the tree of Gernika in the vicinity of the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.  The visit hopes to strengthen ties between the two icons, Auschwitz and Gernika, as part of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika and other Basque towns during the Spanish Civil War. 

Vitoria-Gasteiz.   Urkullu will plant the sapling of the Tree of Gernika accompanied by a delegation from the Basque Government and the Bizkaian Parliament.  Traveling with the Lehendakari on behalf of the Basque Government is the Secretary General of Coexistence, Human Rights and Cooperation, Jonan Fernandez; the Secretary General of Foreign Action, Marian Elorza; and acompanying Ana Otadui, president of the Bizkaian Parliament are representatives from the Chamber's parliamentary groups.  The participation of youth from various schools in Euskadi as part of an educational trip supported by the Pro-Tradition and European Culture Association (APTCE).

The tree will be planted on April 20th in the Zasole Park in the vicinity of Auschwitz-Birkenau at an event that will be full of emotion.  The event will also include the participation of both the Basque and Polish culture.  The Lehendakari will visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and will hold meetings with representatives from the city hall of Oświęcim where the museum is located, as well as with the president of the region of Malopolska (small Poland).

Statement by Marian Elorza, Secretary General of Foreign Action about the trip to Auschwitz. It begings in Spanish and from 1:50, it's in Basque.

The day before, April 19th, the Basque delegation will visit both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camps.  After the official visit they will attend an international gathering of Basque and Polish youth where they will hear the voice of a survivor of the concentration and extermination camp at Auchwitz-Birkenau: Bogdan Bartnikowski.  The 80th anniversary of the bombings in Euskadi will also be commemorated at this event, specifically that of Gernika.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum was erected in July of 1947 and comprises the grounds of two former concentration camps: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.  Among its objectives is the collection, restoration of objects, collections and archives, as well as establishing and maintaining contacts with former prosoners and keeping the memory of what happened there.  Remember that more than one million people were sent to Auschwitz with nearly 400,000 being registered and imprisoned.  Of this 400,000, some 200,000 were Jews, another 150,000 Polish, and some 23,000 Gypsies with 15,000 soviet prisoners of wars, as well as 25,000 prisoners of other nationalities.

Most of them died of starvation, or from the annihilating conditions of the camp.  At the time of the liberation, only 7,000 people were left.

The APTCE Association is a cultural platform that seeks to Foster the European spirit by twinning peoples and is responsible for the meeting between the Basque and Polish youth around the symbol of the Tree of Gernika.