Commemorations are being held Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops.
In just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, built in the south of occupied Poland near the town of Oswiecim. Auschwitz was at the centre of the Nazi campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population, and almost one million of those who died there were Jews.
“God suffered a great deal in every single person who was here. God suffered a great deal in this place,” Cardinal Rys added.
King Charles, Prince William and Kate Middleton are leading the royal family’s commemorations of the victims of the Holocaust on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Silence pervades the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau today. Sometimes the only sounds are the soft footsteps of visitors, people who come from all over the world to mourn and to learn, and the voices of their guides speaking in hushed tones into microphones trying to explain the ungraspable.
By Barbara Erling and Kuba Stezycki OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) -Auschwitz survivors were being joined by world leaders on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops,
In all, the Nazi regime 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 Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The ceremony is widely regarded as the last major observance likely to see a significant number of survivors in attendance.
Chabad Shliach Rabbi Shalom Ber Stambler sounded the shofar and Israel's former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau recited Kaddish at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp in Auschwitz.
Ruth Cohen, a 94-year-old American Holocaust survivor, returned to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland for the first time. She recalled seeing family members before they were separated for the last time at the camp.
I did not need to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps to know they were unspeakably evil. However, my somber visit embedded in my soul my deep conviction to speak up at injustices and cruelty being perpetuated. All humans have dignity, all humans have basic human rights endowed by their Creator and all deserve to have those rights respected.