This year, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January, the International Auschwitz Committee will be awarding the Statue of Remembrance to the President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen.

The statue represents an inverted letter B. It is a reminder of the inscription "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" (work makes you free) above the main gate of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp, in particular of the letter B in the word ARBEIT, which the prisoners secretly turned upside down as a sign of their desperation and resistance.

Since 2010 the International Auschwitz Committee has been presenting the Statue of Remembrance to leading personalities who stand up for human rights and oppose intolerance and anti-Semitism. The recipients so far have included Pope Francis, the former Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, the deceased President of Israel Shimon Peres, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and the British heir to the throne Prince Charles.

In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said:

"The Auschwitz survivors are very grateful to President Van der Bellen for his unmistakeable stance and his clear words. Time and again he has encouraged people in his own and in other countries to learn well from the history of hatred, intolerance and anti-Semitism in Europe and to become actively involved for democracy and human rights. Particularly, in view of the growing negative attitudes in European countries towards foreigners, and the call for old toxic remedies, President Van der Bellen has – with his calm, distinctly liberal voice – strengthened democracy not only in Austria, and he has won the hearts especially young people for the diversity of democracy."

The statue will be awarded to the President of Austria on 30 January in Vienna by the Auschwitz survivor and President of the IAC Roman Kent (New York) and Marian Turski, journalist and Auschwitz survivor from Warsaw. They will be accompanied by Auschwitz survivors from Austria, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.