Survivors Mark 80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation

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Above: Holocaust survivors take part in the ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland, on Jan. 27, 2024. Image copyright: Andrzej Iwanczuk/Contributor/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Facts

  • Around 50 former inmates and survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp — alongside world leaders, royalty and other dignitaries — assembled at the site in southern Poland to commemorate 80 years since its liberation on Monday.

  • Some 7K prisoners were discovered by Soviet forces when the camp was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945, and the date has since marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day — a call to remember the atrocities carried out by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime so that such crimes are never repeated again.

  • Of the 6M Jews systematically murdered by the Nazis in the course of World War II, roughly 1M of those were killed at Auschwitz. The site, alongside others, was also used to exterminate Poles, Romani and Sinti people, as well as Soviet prisoners of war, Jehova's Witnesses, gay people, and those with physical or mental disabilities.

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The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Since the liberation of Auschwitz 80 years ago, it remains more imperative than ever to remember the atrocities carried out there and at other Nazi death camps so that such horrors are never again repeated. This is particularly because surveys show that a growing number of young people are completely unaware of what took place.

NBC

Establishment-critical narrative

While world leaders will make well-meaning statements about the need to remember the Holocaust, the reality is that far-right parties are once again prevalent across the Western world. Intolerance in the form of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric is now widespread. Least of all, genocidal violence in Gaza shows that lessons of the past have not been learned.

Al Jazeera

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