78th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz and International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust :: International Auschwitz Committee :: Remember the past, be responsible for the future ::

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26.01.2023

78th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz and International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

Surviving Jewish children in Auschwitz with nurses. The photograph was taken by a Soviet photographer while making a film about the liberation of the camp. Image: IMAGO / Reinhard Schultz, Collage: KGS / IAK Berlin

In Berlin Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, issued an emphatic statement marking the 78th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz and the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on 27 January:

“In this particular year, and on this particularly painful day of remembrance, the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps are being confronted with new agonies and horrors.

As they remember their murdered family members and fellow prisoners, the shock and horror created by a new war in Europe is worsening their trauma. The survivors of Auschwitz are filled with gratitude when they recall how members of the Red Army liberated them. But this is making them all the more aware of the fact that today’s Russian Army is carrying out a brutally aggressive war in Ukraine, and that survivors of the Holocaust in that country are also suffering under these massive attacks which are adding new horrific images and experiences to those they already have to live with.

As the survivors look at the present-day world beyond these horrors of war, they are filled with both concern and hope:

In too many countries around the world, democracy is coming under pressure and Antisemitism is increasingly spreading into mainstream society. Far-right conspiracy theories are becoming more commonplace and are being absorbed by far too many people. They are circling the globe via the social media. And for this reason, the survivors are deeply grateful to the many young people who are standing up against this world of hatred. They are also the ones who are carrying the memories of the survivors into the future, and who will speak out very clearly about what happened in Auschwitz and what the causes were.

Just a few days before the 90th anniversary of the so-called seizure of power by the National Socialists in Germany, the survivors are calling on all of the citizens of Europe, to protect and shape democracy in their societies and in Europe as a whole.”