The solemn commemoration came amid a worldwide spike in antisemitism and new surveys suggesting basic knowledge of the Holocaust is eroding.
Over 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly a million Jews. On the day of liberation 80 years ago, only 7,000 were saved.
The house, until this year, had always been in private hands. A U.S.-based group, the "Counter Extremism Project," has purchased it. Now, in conjunction with the Auschwitz Museum and UNESCO, they have created "The Auschwitz Center on Hate, Extremism and Radicalisation." The home is now open to the public for the first time.
Auschwitz survivors warned of the dangers of rising antisemitism on Monday, as they marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops in one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced its horrors.
By Barbara Erling and Kuba Stezycki OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) -Auschwitz survivors were being joined by world leaders on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops,
“God suffered a great deal in every single person who was here. God suffered a great deal in this place,” Cardinal Rys added.
In just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, built in the south of occupied Poland near the town of Oswiecim. Auschwitz was at the centre of the Nazi campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population, and almost one million of those who died there were Jews.
It doesn’t do any good for your heart, for your mind, for anything,” said Holocaust survivor Jona Laks, 94, about her return to Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Auschwitz survivors have warned of the rising antisemitism and hatred in the modern world as they gathered with world leaders and European royalty on the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation.
The ceremony is widely regarded as the last major observance likely to see a significant number of survivors in attendance.
At the gate we saw this huge creature with icicles and wrapped in fur. It was terribly, terribly cold. […] First, we really thought it was a bear, but when