Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Germany. King Charles III and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend major Auschwitz anniversary celebrations.
60 state delegations and international organizations have confirmed their participation in Monday’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Germany. The main guests will be the survivors, about 50 of them will come.
The main ceremony will begin on Monday at 4 p.m. in front of the historic gate of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Guests – survivors, as well as representatives and other participants – sit in a huge tent that covers the main part of the historic building. The museum said that about three thousand local people will participate in this ceremony.
The main message will belong to the former prisoners of Auschwitz. After them, the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, and the director of the Auschwitz facility, Piotr Cywinski, will also speak on behalf of the donors of the Auschwitz museum. Christian and Jewish priests will pray. Ex-prisoners and representatives of countries and organizations lit candles next to a historic railway car set up at the ceremony site, the same type used by the Germans to deport Jews to the Holocaust.
Early in the morning, survivors and President Andrzej Duda lay flowers in front of the Death Wall at the Auschwitz I camp, where, during the war, the Germans shot thousands of people, mostly Poles.
King Charles III and the Chancellor of Germany are scheduled to visit Auschwitz
King Charles III was due to attend the celebrations. His visit to Poland will be the monarch’s first visit abroad this year. This is Charles III’s first visit to the Vistula after he ascends the throne in 2022. Previously, he visited Poland four times as the Prince of Wales.
On Sunday, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that almost all of Germany’s leading politicians will attend the celebrations, including President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Participation in the ceremony, including, state delegations: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Canada, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, North Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, United States, Switzerland, Sweden, Vatican City, Hungary and Italy.
Representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the UN, UNESCO and the Sovereign Order of Malta will also take part in the celebrations.
“We will never forget the 6 million Jews who were killed in cold blood and all the victims of the Holocaust. Now that the last survivors have passed away, it is our duty as Europeans to remember the heinous crimes and honor the memory of the victims. ” wrote the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Symbol of Nazi crimes
January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, 80 years ago, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. It became a symbol of Nazi crimes against Jews. It is also the site of massacres of Poles, Gypsies and other nationalities.
The Germans established Auschwitz in 1940 to imprison Poles. Two years later, they established Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where they built the infrastructure for the mass killing of Jews, primarily gas chambers and crematoria. The camp complex also had a network of dozens of sub-camps where prisoners were used as slave labor.
At Auschwitz, the Germans killed at least 1.1 million people, including nearly a million Jews. 70,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war and about 12,000 prisoners of other nations, including Czechs, Belarusians, Yugoslavs, French, Germans and Austrians, died in the camp.
Main photo: John Chica / Shutterstock.com
