80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation and International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be held today, Monday, February 8, near the city of Krakow, Poland. This event is scheduled to take place in the afternoon at the time when Soviet soldiers liberated this death camp. Approximately 50 survivors of the camp, as well as leaders and officials from various countries, will attend the ceremony. Several international officials, including Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, arrived in Poland on Sunday, and other officials, including Charles III, the King of the United Kingdom, and leaders from Britain, France, and Germany, are expected to travel to Poland on Monday. Poland has also not invited Russia to participate in the ceremony this year due to its military invasion of Ukraine. At the end of World War II, when Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz, only about seven thousand prisoners remained in the camp; approximately 1.1 million people, most of whom were Jewish, were murdered by the Nazis in this camp. Over the years, historians based at the site have been identifying the victims by collecting information from various sources, including transport lists, luggage tags, and writings on the walls. Since 2005, January 27 has been designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations.