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Auschwitz remembrance calls for action against hatred
World leaders and survivors mark the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, reminding us to prevent hatred from leading to genocide.
Polish police patrols along the fences of Auschwitz concentration camp site on january 27, 2025, in Oswiecim, Poland, ahead of commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army. The camp was set up by Nazi German occupiers in southern Poland in 1940 and liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945 — just months before the end of the Second World War. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky probably said it best yesterday when marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi horror – a day designated by the UN as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Zelensky said: “We must overcome the hatred that gives rise to abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetfulness. And it is everyone’s mission to do everything possible to prevent evil from winning.”
Some survivors of Auschwitz – the largest of the concentration camps and a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews – returned to the death camp in Poland yesterday.
One million Jews died there during World War II, together with more than 100 000 non-Jews.
The 50-odd survivors, some with blueand-white striped scarves in the colours of their camp uniforms, yesterday laid flowers at the camp’s Wall of Death in silence.
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Many world leaders joined in honouring them outside the gates of Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
On 27 January, 1945 Soviet troops found 7 000 survivors when they arrived. For Julia Wallach, almost 100, it’s still hard to think of those times, as she breaks into tears reliving her time at the camp. “It is too difficult to talk about. As long as I can do it, I will do it.”
Sadly, these anniversaries where survivors attend are numbered, with King Charles III saying: “As the number of Holocaust survivors diminishes, the responsibility of remembrance rests far heavier on our shoulders and on those of generations yet unborn.”
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbours, grandparents: more than one million individuals with dreams and hopes were murdered in Auschwitz by Germans. We’ll never forget them. Not today, not tomorrow.”
We cannot allow evil to win. We must overcome hatred. Auschwitz must not be forgotten and it must never be repeated.
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