Warsaw, 27 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) – Holocaust survivors will be the focus of commemorations on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Some 50 former inmates of the notorious death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau will be present, the Auschwitz Memorial organization said. Three or four of them are to make the main address. The commemoration could be one of the last at which survivors are present.

Memorial director Piotr Cywiński, head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, said he expected the speakers to address current issues.

"With the phenomenal increase of populism, demagoguery and informational chaos these days, we need firm and clear points of reference, and their experiences are part of this," Cywiński told the Polish Press Agency.

Delegations from 55 countries are expected to attend. Among those present will be German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Charles of the United Kingdom, Spain's King Felipe VI and other crowned heads of state.

On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in modern-day Oświęcim, Poland.

The Nazis had murdered more than 1 million people there, predominantly Jews.

Since 1996, this date has been observed in Germany as Holocaust Memorial Day and in 2005 the United Nations declared the date an international day of remembrance.

Photo: EPA