21.1.2026 - 29.1.2026

81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: Events commemorating the victims of the Holocaust

In Germany, we are marking the anniversary in 2026 with events that bring memories to life through encounters, discussions, and literature.

 

 

21 January 2026, 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Bad Harzburg

Reading and discussion with Christoph Heubner about the work of the International Auschwitz Committee and his encounters with survivors, together with an audience of 10th and 11th grade students at the Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnasium in Bad Harzburg.

Location
Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnsium
Herzog Wilhelm Str. 25
38667 Bad Harzburg

 

 

22 January 2026, 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) Wolfsburg

Commemoration ceremony and reading with Christoph Heubner. Eighty-one years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we have no reason to allow the memory of the causes and events leading to Auschwitz to fade away within our busy everyday lives.

Especially now, while right-wing extremist parties and populist political strategists in many European countries believe they can finally win themselves majorities, and oust democracy through derision and contempt, it is all the more important for us to stand firm against growing hatred and to oppose anti-Semitism. The courage and the zest for life that Holocaust survivors have radiated for decades, and are still doing to this day, are a constant source of inspiration to us.

Diversity and tolerance are not a threat. They are an enrichment in a world that needs all of our empathy and solidarity in order to have a future. And this is why we invite you to join us: to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and to celebrate democracy!

Location
Hallenbad – Kultur am Schachtweg
Schachtweg 31
38440 Wolfsburg

Link to the invitation and programme in German

 

 

25 January 2026, 11:00 a.m., Berlin

Commemoration ceremony. On Sunday, 25 January 2026, the International Auschwitz Committee will open the worldwide commemoration of the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, in Berlin – the city from which Auschwitz was planned and organized.

Welcome address
Dr Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor, President of the International Auschwitz Committee.

Speech
Olaf Lies, Minister President of Lower Saxony.

In conversation
Trainees from Volkswagen AG,
Michele Deodat, lnternational Auschwitz Committee and 
Rafal Wedrychowski, interpreter and literary translator, Krakow.

Moderation and closing remarks
Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President, International Auschwitz Committee.

Location 
Vertretung des Landes Niedersachsen beim Bund
In den Ministergärten 10
10117 Berlin

Link to the invitation and programme (in German)

Link to the video recording of the event (in German)

 

25 January 2026, 2:00 p.m., Dillenburg

Ecumenical Service
Protestant and Catholic parishes of Dillenburg
With Ralf Arnd Blecker and Marion Schroeder.

Location 
Movie Star-Kino, Kinosaal 5
Bismarckstraße 
235683 Dillenburg

Further information

26 January 2026, 7:30 p.m., Dillenburg

Talk in German by Alfred Holighaus, Berlin
Schindler's List, a milestone in film history – a milestone in remembrance? 
Admission free

Location
Movie Star-Kino, Kinosaal 5
Bismarckstraße 2
35683 Dillenburg

Further information (in German)
 

27. Januar 2026, 19:30 Uhr, Dillenburg

Film screening: Schindler’s List (in German)
Feature film by Steven Spielberg, 1993. With a welcome address by Mayor Michael Lotz.
Admission 5€

Location 
Movie Star-Kino, Kinosaal 5 - Schindlers List
Bismarckstraße 
235683 Dillenburg

Further information

 

29 January 2026, 7:30 p.m., Frankfurt am Main

Reading with Christoph Heubner from his book ‘Als wir die Maikäfer waren’ (When we were the maybugs). All of the stories in this volume are about people who survived the Holocaust and had to carry on living in their second lives with their dead family members and friends, with their own feelings of guilt and shame, with their grief and their anger. On the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz we want to give space to these stories. And we want to talk about the challenges facing future forms of commemorating the victims and remembering the crimes perpetrated under National Socialism. 

‘Auschwitz never left me’. This is how Zofia Posmysz summed up the sense of threat that accompanied many survivors of the Nazi extermination policies for decades after their liberation. Zofia was 18 when she was arrested in Krakow in 1942 as a Polish resistance fighter, because she had distributed leaflets against the German occupation. She survived various concentration camps and dedicated herself tirelessly to the need for remembrance, right up to her death at 98 years of age in 2022. Her novel Die Passagierin (The Passenger) served as the basis for the opera of the same name by Mieczysław Weinberg, which celebrates its return to the stage on 1 February at the Oper Frankfurt. 

Christoph Heubner and Zofia Posmysz were friends for many years. They met as a result of his activities as executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee. In his collection of stories, Als wir die Maikäfer waren, published by the Steidl Verlag, he has dedicated one of the many survivors’ stories to Zofia Posmysz who tells of her memories and the origins of the novel and the opera Die Passagierin.

Location Hessisches Literaturforum im Mousonturm e.V.Waldschmidtstraße 460316 Frankfurt am Main

Link to the invitation and programme (in German)

Link to the Oper Frankfurt: Revival of the opera The Passenger on 1 February 2026 (English page)

 

20 March 2026, 7:30 p.m., Leipzig

In the context of Leipzig Reads, Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor and President of the International Auschwitz Committee, will be reading from her latest book:

‘Genau so fängt es an - Ein Appell’
Published by Hoffmann und Campe

Location 
Gemeindesaal der Propstei St. Trinitatis
Nonnenmühlgasse 
204107 Leipzig

Further informationen