In Poland, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, together with world leaders and former prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, took part in events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
The commemoration ceremony took place at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the Polish city of Oświęcim. It was attended by the heads and representatives of nearly 60 states and international organizations, including the King of the United Kingdom, members of the royal families of Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, as well as the Crown Prince of Norway and the Crown Princess of Sweden. Also present were the presidents of Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Germany, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Finland, France, Czechia, Montenegro, and Switzerland; the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the prime ministers of Belgium, Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Croatia, and Sweden. Additionally, the presidents of the European Council and the European Parliament were in attendance.
The event was attended by about 50 former prisoners who managed to survive torture in one of the largest Nazi death camps.
The crimes committed by the Nazis against people on the territory of the current museum are reminded, in particular, by a freight car where SS doctors selected deported Jews and sent most of them to their deaths in gas chambers.
During World War II, over a million people perished at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, most of them Jews. The camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, when soldiers of the 100th Lviv Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front opened the gates of the main camp.
Sixty years after the camp's liberation, the United Nations General Assembly declared January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.