75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi-German concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau
17583 Mins Read
Commemorations will be taking place today to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi-German concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest German Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 27 January 1945 and the day is commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day worldwide.
The biggest German Nazi death camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany near Oswiecim in occupied Poland during World War II, and a central site in the Nazis’ plan to the so-called ‘Final Solution’ and the Holocaust (Shoa).
A handout photo made available by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum shows piles of shoes and clothes that belonged to people brought to Auschwitz for extermination at the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland, 1945 EPA-EFE/STANISLAW MUCHA / http://www.auschwitz.org / HANDOUT
It is estimated that 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz, and 1.1 million died there including 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans.
A handout photo made available by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum of a grab from the ‘Chronic of liberation on KL Auschwitz’ made by Soviet army cameramen shows an aerial view of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Brzezinka, Poland, January 1945 (issued 22 January 2020). EPA-EFE/STANISLAW MUCHA / http://www.auschwitz.org / HANDOUT
Prisoners who were not gassed in chambers died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, beatings or were killed during medical experiments.
A handout photo made available by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum shows prisoners and nurses at the hospital for liberated prisoners after liberation at the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, 1945 (issued 22 January 2020). EPA-EFE/STANISLAW MUCHA / http://www.auschwitz.org / HANDOUT ES
Since 1947, the site houses a memorial and museum that also offers guided tours and an education center to deepen the peoples’ knowledge about the mass atrocities committed at the Nazi camps.
Via EPA-EFE/JACEK BEDNARCZYK/www.auschwitz.org
A handout photo made available by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum shows aerial view on the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, 09 December 2008 (issued 22 January 2020). EPA-EFE/PAWEL SAWICKI / http://www.auschwitz.org / HANDOUT
