Holocaust remembrance ceremony at Auschwitz death camp

January 27, 2023

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oswiecim, Poland is holding a ceremony on Friday to mark the liberation of the Nazi death camp and remember victims of the Holocaust.

Holocaust survivors are taking part in the ceremony, exactly 78 years after Soviet forces entered the concentration and extermination camp in 1945.

Survivor recounts trauma of losing family

Eva Umlauf, who was born in 1942, was one of the youngest survivors of the camp. She said during the event Friday that only her mother, sister and herself survived the Nazis, but the rest of her family was murdered.

“For me, Auschwitz is a traumatizing part of my biography,” Umlauf said. She said she survived the camp due to a “stroke of luck” but added that she grapples with survivor’s guilt.

Some 1.1 million people were murdered at the Auschwitz complex which began operation in May 1940. Jews, Poles, Romani and Soviet prisoners of war were among the victims of the death camp.

The ceremony, which is being streamed online, is being held under the honorary patronage of Polish President Andrzej Duda. The event’s main theme focuses on the planning, creation and expansion of the system of dehumanization and genocide at the death camp.

Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, said “Auschwitz did not just fall out of the sky.”

“Auschwitz emerged out of the lust for power and megalomania,” he said, referring to the Nazi regime.

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and others take part in the event at the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau — Attendees at the event, including US Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, placed candles in remembrance of the victimsImage: Bartosz Siedlik/AFP/Getty Images

Other guests at the event in Poland include Doug Emhoff, the husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris. Russian officials have not been invited to the event, amid the invasion of Ukraine.

UN chief, Holocaust survivor to speak at New York City event

The UN General Assembly has designated January 27 as International Holocaust Rememberance Day, to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz and remember the 6 million Jews who were murdered, along with other victims of Nazism.

Later on Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will speak during a Holocaust memorial ceremony in New York City. The event will take place at the United Nations General Assembly Hall under the theme “Home and Belonging.”

Holocaust historian Deborah Dwork will give the keynote speech at the event, while Holocaust survivor Jacques Grishaver will also give remarks.

wd/kb (AP, dpa)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/holocaust-remembrance-ceremony-at-auschwitz-death-camp/a-64532572?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom