This Monday, January 27, a ceremony will be held in the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland during the 80th anniversary of its release by the Soviet army.
About fifty survivors and dozens of leaders, including King Charles III and Emmanuel Macron, will be present.
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The 80th anniversary of the release of the Auschwitz camp
About fifty survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau meet on Monday on the site of this former German Nazi camp on Monday, on the occasion of the 80ᵉ anniversary of his release in the last months of the Second World War. Under the historic gateway to Birkenau, they will take part in an official ceremony, alongside dozens of leaders, including King Charles III and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as German Chancellor and President, Olaf Scholz and Frank -Walter Steinmeier.
The ceremony which will start at 4 p.m. will bring together 54 international delegations. “This year, we focus on survivors and their message”Pawel Sawicki, spokesperson for the Auschwitz museum, told AFP. “There will be no speeches by politicians,” he said.
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Auschwitz-Birkenau has become the symbol of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany on six million European Jews, one million of which died on the site between 1940 and 1945, as well as more than 100,000 non-Jews.
The camp was created in 1940 in barracks of Oswiecim, in the south of occupied Poland, whose name was Germanized in Auschwitz by the Nazis. The first 728 Polish political prisoners arrived there on June 14 of that year. On January 17, 1945, faced with the advance of Soviet troops, the SS forced 60,000 prisoners emaciated to walk to the west in what will be called “death march”. From January 21 to 26, the Germans blow up the gas chambers and the crematorium ovens of Birkenau and withdraw. On January 27, Soviet troops arrived and found 7,000 survivors. The day of the release of the camp was proclaimed by the United Nations as a day of commemoration of the holocaust.
