By Barbara Erling and Kuba Stezycki
OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) – Auschwitz survivors will be joined by world leaders on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops, in what will likely be one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced its horrors.
The anniversary at the site of the camp, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland during World War Two, will be attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Britain’s King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Antonio Costa and a host of other leaders.
Israel will be represented by Education Minister Yoav Kisch.
Pawel Sawicki, a spokesperson for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, said that there would be no speeches by politicians and that leaders would instead be listening to the voices of survivors.
“It is clear to all of us that this is the last milestone anniversary where we can have a group of survivors that will be visible who can be present at the site,” he said.
“In ten years it will not happen and for as long as we can we should listen to the voices of survivors, their testimonies, their personal stories. It is something that is of enormous significance when we talk about how the memory of Auschwitz is shaped.”
The main commemoration will begin at 1500 GMT in a tent built over the gate to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. One of the symbols of the anniversary will be a freight train car, which will be placed in front of the gate.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz.
More than 3 million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe.
(Reporting by Barbara Erling and Kuba Stezycki; Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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