World leaders and a dwindling group of survivors are joining ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp by the Red Army.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Poland on Monday, 27 January to take part in the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Source: Serhii Nykyforov,
Eighty years after the liberation of Auschwitz, genocide, the persecution of millions of people because of their origin, war and even the possible use of nuclear weapons are once again considered “normal.
The main observances take place at the site in southern Poland where Nazi Germany murdered over a million people
Holocaust survivors and world leaders gathered in Poland on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where the Nazi Germans killed more than 1.1 million people during World War II.
The ceremony is widely regarded as the last major observance likely to see a significant number of survivors in attendance.
Elderly camp survivors, some wearing striped scarves that recall their prison uniforms, walked to the the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed. Across Europe, officials were pausing to remember.
Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II.
About 50 survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau will return to the site on Monday to remember the day it was finally liberated on 27 January 1945. They will be joined by heads of state including King Charles and other European royalty, Emmanuel Macron of France and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Most of them were Jews, but countless thousands were Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, homosexuals, politicial prisoners, and members of other minority groups. "The site was chosen because of its central location in Europe,
Officials say the commemorative event marking the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation could be the last of its kind.