Auschwitz camp and the slogan at the entrance – Arbeit macht frei, Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto / Shutterstock
On Monday, 27 January, commemorative ceremonies will be held at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi death camp, to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation. The events will be attended by about 50 survivors and dozens of world leaders, including King Charles III of the United Kingdom, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior officials, AFP reports.
The official ceremony will start at 16:00 local time (15:00 GMT). According to the organisers, this year’s focus is on the messages of survivors. “There will be no political speeches,” said Pawel Sawicki, spokesman for the Auschwitz Museum.
A symbol of enduring memory
Auschwitz-Birkenau remains a symbol of the Nazi genocide: more than a million Jews and thousands of other nationalities perished there between 1940 and 1945. The liberation of the camp by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945 became a day of remembrance, which is now marked worldwide as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
This year’s ceremony may be the last to bring together a large number of survivors. “In ten years, it will be impossible,” Savytskyi said.
The Russian delegation is absent
For the first time in many years, the Russian delegation was not invited to the event. This decision, taken after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has been sharply criticised by Moscow for the third year in a row.
Message from the EU
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has reminded us of the importance of remembering the victims of the Holocaust. “We will never forget the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust and other victims of Nazism,” she wrote on social media platform X, adding that the fight against anti-Semitism remains extremely relevant.
Diplomatic disputes
Israel will be represented by Education Minister Yoav Kish, while rumours of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s possible participation have sparked debate. Poland has assured that it will not arrest him under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, although Netanyahu is unlikely to attend.
