Oswiecim [Poland], January 28 : A memorial service to mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops was held on Monday (local time) at the site of the former death camp, a ceremony that was widely treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors would be able to attend, CBS News reported.
Among those who traveled to the site was 86-year-old Tova Friedman, who was 6 when she was among the 7,000 people liberated on January 27, 1945. She believes it will the be last gathering of survivors at Auschwitz and she came from her home in New Jersey to add her voice to those warning about rising hatred and antisemitism.
Auschwitz quickly became a potent symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust. Its notorious "selection process" for prisoners arriving at the camp's train platform determined life or death in mere moments. Families were torn apart, with children, the elderly, and the disabled often sent immediately to their deaths, CBS News reported.
The vast majority of prisoners who survived the initial selection went on to endure unimaginable suffering and were still eventually murdered, often after grueling forced labor in sub-zero temperatures or cruel medical experiments, as per CBS News.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation lost 6 million citizens during the war, placed a candle Monday at Auschwitz's Death Wall, where many prisoners were executed, among them Poles who resisted the occupation of their country. He was surrounded by elderly survivors of the camp, who were assisted by family members.
"We Poles, on whose land -- occupied by Nazi Germans at that time -- the Germans built this extermination industry and this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory," Duda said. He spoke of the "unimaginable harm" inflicted on so many people, especially the Jewish people.
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In all, the Germans murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe's Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Later in the day, world leaders and royalty joined with elderly camp survivors, the youngest of whom are in their 80s.
Among the leaders in attendance were Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Germany had never sent both of its highest state representatives to the observances before, CBS News reported.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau along with Britain's King Charles III and kings and queens from Spain, Denmark and Norway attended the ceremony.
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The White House said Washington would be represented by US special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, among others.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, also arrived in Poland Monday to attend the memorial.
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"We must overcome the hatred that gives rise to abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetfulness," he said in a statement before he arrived. "It is everyone's mission to do everything possible to prevent evil from winning."
Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but the Germans also murdered many Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination in the Nazi racial ideology, as per CBS News.