By Canadian Press

Auschwitz memorial holds observances on the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation

Jan 27, 2025 | 12:20 AM

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops is being marked on Monday at the site of the former death camp, a ceremony that is widely being treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend.

Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site 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 murdered many Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination in the Nazi racial ideology.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation lost 6 million citizens during the war, placed a candle at the Death Wall, where prisoners were executed, among them Poles who resisted the occupation of their country. He was surrounded by elderly survivors of the camp assisted by family members.

In all, the Germans murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe’s Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Later in the day, world leaders and royalty will join with elderly camp survivors, the youngest of whom are in their 80s. Politicians, however, have not been asked to speak this year. Due to the advanced age of the survivors, organizers are choosing to make them the center of the observances.

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Among the leaders expected to attend are Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Germany has never sent both of its highest state representatives to the observances before, according to German news agency dpa.

It is a sign of Germany’s continued commitment to take responsibility for the nation’s crimes, even amid a growing far-right movement that would like to forget.

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.

Russian representatives were in the past central guests at the anniversary observances in recognition of the Soviet liberation of the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, and the huge losses suffered by Soviet forces in the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. But they have not been welcome since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press