Auschwitz, Poland — On Monday, the site of the former death camp marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops, a ceremony that many see as the last important celebration that a significant number of survivors will be able to attend.
German troops killed about 1.1 million people in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews, killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but the Germans also killed many Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, gays, and others targeted for elimination in Nazi racial ideology.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation lost 6 million citizens during the war, placed a candle at the Wall of Death, where prisoners, including Poles who resisted the occupation of their country, were executed. He was surrounded by elderly camp survivors who were helped by family members.
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In total, the Germans killed 6 million Jews from all over Europe, exterminating two-thirds of Europe's Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations declared January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Later in the day, world leaders and members of the royal family will join elderly survivors of the camp, the youngest of whom is in his 80s. Politicians, however, have not been asked to speak this year. Due to the old age of the survivors, the organizers decided to make them the center of events.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier are expected to participate among the leaders. As reported by the German news agency dpa, Germany has never before sent both of its highest state representatives to the celebrations.
It's a sign of Germany's continued commitment to taking responsibility for the nation's crimes, even amid the rise of far-right movements that would like to forget them.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also attend, while Britain's King Charles III will also be there, along with kings and queens from Spain, Denmark and Norway.
The White House said Washington will be represented by US Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, among others.
In the past, Russian representatives were the main guests at anniversary events commemorating the liberation of the camp by Soviet forces on January 27, 1945 and the huge losses suffered by Soviet forces as a result of the defeat by the allies of Nazi Germany. But since then they were not expected Full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, said Monday that the world must unite against evil, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We must overcome the hatred that breeds abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetting. And it is everyone's mission to do everything possible so that evil does not win,” he said, according to the presidency's statement.