Today, 80 years have passed since the liberation of the German Auschwitz camp. In the main anniversary ceremonies in Oświęcim, among others, King Karol III and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will take part.
Participation in the Monday celebration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi camp Auschwitz-Birkenau confirmed 60 state delegations and international organizations. The main guests will be the survivors, who will arrive around 50.
The main ceremony will start on Monday at 16 in front of the historical gate of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau KL. Guests – saved, as well as delegates and other participants – will sit in a huge tent set up there, which covered, among others, the main part of the historic building. The museum stated that about three thousand people will take part in the ceremony.
The main message will belong to former Auschwitz prisoners. After them, they will also speak – on behalf of the donors of the Auschwitz Museum – chairman of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder and the director of the Oświęcim institution Piotr Cywiński. Christian and Jewish clergy will say prayers. Former prisoners and representatives of states and organizations will ignite candles at the historical railway wagon set at the place where the Germans deported Jews for destruction.
In the early morning, saved and President Andrzej Duda will lay flowers in front of the wall of execution in the former Auschwitz I. In this place during the war, the Germans shot many thousands of people, mainly Poles.
King Karol III and German Chancellor are to reach Oświęcim
King Karol III is to be present at the celebrations. His journey to Poland will be the first foreign trip of the monarch this year. This is also the first visit of Karol III on the Vistula after taking the throne in 2022. Earlier, as the prince of Wales, he visited Poland four times.
Almost all RFN politicians, including President Frank -Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, will take part in the celebrations, “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” said on Sunday.
Participation in the ceremony was confirmed by, among others, state delegations from Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Ireland, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Canada, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Northern Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Serbia, Slovakia. United States, Switzerland, Sweden, Vatican, Hungary and Italy.
The ceremony will also include representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Alliance, the UN, UNESCO and the Sovereign Maltese Order.
“We will never forget 6 million Jews murdered in cold blood and all the victims of the Holocaust. Now, when the last saved, our duty as Europeans is to remember about unspoken crimes and honor the memory of victims” – wrote the chairman of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Symbol of Nazi crimes
On January 27, the International Remembrance Day about the victims of the Holocaust is celebrated. That day 80 years ago, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz camp. He became a symbol of the crime committed by the Nazis on Jews. It is also a place of execution of Poles, Roma and people of other nationalities.
The Germans founded the Auschwitz camp in 1940 to imprison Poles in it. Two years later, they created Auschwitz II-Birkenau, in which they built infrastructure for killing on a massive scale Jews, primarily gas chambers and crematoria. There was also a network of several dozen sub -camps in the camp complex, in which prisoners were used in slave work.
In Auschwitz, the Germans killed at least 1.1 million people, including about a million Jews. 70,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war and about 12,000 prisoners of other nationalities, including the Czechs, Belarusians, Yugoslavs, French, Germans and Austrians were killed in the camp.
Source of the main photo: Jon Chica / Shutterstock.com