Auschwitz liberation remembered 65 years on
Photo: European (flickr)
As memorial ceremonies were held around the world today to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, dignitaries and camp survivors gathered at Auschwitz to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp.
Among the politicians taking part in the memorial events at the World War II death camp in Poland were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek.
But the first part of the ceremony was focused on the handful of survivors, 150 ex-prisoners, who recounted their experiences about the camp where over 1.1 million people lost their lives.
“Nobody could imagine that the first use of Cyclon B on the prisoners in September 1941 was only a trial run for mass murder,” Władysław Bartoszewski, a former prisoner at Auschwitz and now the Polish prime minister’s special envoy to Germany, told the invited guests and delegations from over 47 countries.
Israeli PM Netanyahu emphasised the common tragedy suffered by Jews and Poles in Nazi-occupied Poland. “And we remember that one third of those who risked their lives and their children‘s lives to help Jews were Polish. We remember that,” he told the audience.
After the main event, Christian and Jewish clergy will pray together at the monument to the victims of the death camp, with ex-prisoners and politicians lighting candles.
Elsewhere in Poland other events were staged to mark the day.
A special conference co-hosted by Poland’s Ministry of Education entitled: "Auschwitz - Remembrance, Responsibility, Education," while a 212 square metre at Auschwitz was given over to an exhibition sponsored by the Russian Foreign Ministry devoted to Soviet Army's liberation of the camp on 27 January 1945.
EU Parliament head Jerzy Buzek addressed the Third International Holocaust Forum in nearby Krakow, stressing the need for international cooperation to prevent such crimes from taking place again. “The European Union was created after that the nightmare of war to make sure it will never be repeated. We must safeguard the memory of the Holocaust so that no one can try to diminish the crimes of Auschwitz. This is our common duty,” he said.
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