A commemoration ceremony will take place at Auschwitz in the presence of Holocaust survivors and heads of state.Image: AP
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Many Swiss buildings will light up this January 27 in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Karin Keller-Sutter will attend a ceremony at the former extermination camp.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, many public buildings in Switzerland, including the Federal Palace, will be illuminated on Monday. January 27 is dedicated each year to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
“In Switzerland too, we remember and we commemorate,” recalled the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (FSCI) and the Platform of Liberal Jews of Switzerland (PJLS). This action is part of the global #WeRemender initiative supported by the World Jewish Congress, the umbrella organization for national Jewish associations.
In Bern, the Federal Palace will be illuminated in different colors on Monday evening and will display the inscription “#WeRemember”. Cities and municipalities in many other cantons have also planned symbolic lighting of public buildings.
In many countries, public and state institutions participate in the initiative. The campaign wants to “remind the world of the consequences of an unrestrained rise in hatred”, according to the FSCI and the PJLS, which evoke a period of resurgence of anti-Semitic acts.
For the initiators, the illumination of public buildings must represent a silent sign of humanity. It must also recall one of the darkest chapters in European history and its victims.
-Karin Keller-Sutter on site
A commemoration ceremony will take place at Auschwitz in the presence of Holocaust survivors, around forty heads of state and government as well as representatives of international organizations. The President of the Confederation Karin Keller-Sutter will represent Switzerland, her services indicated.
She will be accompanied by two Swiss survivors, brothers Alfred and Rudolf Popper, who survived Auschwitz as children. This is the first time they will participate in the commemoration ceremony.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet soldiers entered the Auschwitz camp, in southeastern Poland. This site, which has between 1.1 and 1.5 million victims, symbolizes the persecution and systematic murder of six million Jewish people and other minorities by the Nazis and their allies during World War II. (jzs/ats)
The news in Switzerland is here
Many Swiss buildings will light up this January 27 in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Karin Keller-Sutter will attend a ceremony at the former extermination camp.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, many public buildings in Switzerland, including the Federal Palace, will be illuminated on Monday. January 27 is dedicated each year to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
