Events will be held in Poland to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

On Monday morning, Polish President Andrzej Duda lit a symbolic candle at the Death Wall in the camp. The official ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4 PM local time (6 PM in Moscow). Participation has been confirmed by 56 countries and international delegations. Among the guests are the Chancellor and President of Germany, as well as representatives from Israel. The Polish authorities were prepared to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the arrest warrant issued by the ICC in The Hague, but he decided not to attend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Poland to participate in the events. Russia has not been invited due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The camp was established by Germany in the occupied part of Poland in 1940, where Polish prisoners were held. Two years later, a concentration camp for Jews was founded nearby. In Auschwitz, which Poland and many other countries refer to by its German name, Jews, Soviet prisoners, Poles, Roma, and individuals of other nationalities were murdered.

The gas chamber in the camp was last used in November 1944, as reported by the PAP agency. As Soviet forces advanced, Germany began evacuating the camp's inmates deeper into Reich territory. By the end of the year, the Germans burned documents and attempted to erase evidence of their crimes. When Soviet troops arrived, 7,000 people remained in the camp, including 500 children.

Approximately 6 million Jews, primarily residents of Poland and the former Soviet Union, fell victim to the Holocaust—the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people. Auschwitz, as the largest death camp, became one of the symbols of the Holocaust.

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