More than a million people, mostly Jews but including members of other groups as well, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland during the Second World War as part of what we now know as the Holocaust. The notorious camp was liberated by soldiers of the Soviet Army 80 years ago today on January 27, 1945.
To mark this anniversary - occurring as it does in a time of increasing anti-semitism in the world - European dignitaries, among them Britain's King Charles III, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway, Prince Guillaume and Princess Stephanie of Luxembourg, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, King Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark, and Princess of Orange Catharina-Amalia, have converged on Auschwitz today.
Speaking at the Jewish Community Center in Krakow, King Charles said that the anniversary "is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world." Noting that the number of Holocaust Survivors inevitably diminishes with the passage of time, the King said that "the responsibility of remembrance rests far heavier on our shoulders, and on those of generations yet unborn."
"The act of remembering the evils of the past," King Charles stressed, "remains a vital task and in so doing, we inform our present and shape our future."
Photo: King Philippe of Belgium, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, British King Charles III, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and King Frederik X of Denmark and Queen Mary of Denmark at the 80th Anniversary Commemoration at Auschwitz.
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