Ukraine Giving Up Nukes Was ‘Absolutely Stupid, Illogical And Very Irresponsible,’ Zelenskiy Says

OSWIECIM, Poland — Survivors of the Auschwitz death camp joined European leaders to mark the 80th anniversary of their liberation against a backdrop of rising support for far-right parties, particularly in Germany as it heads toward parliamentary elections next month.

Many of the now elderly survivors wore blue-and-white striped scarves reminiscent of their camp uniforms and carried candles as they walked to the Wall of Death at the camp in Poland, where some 1.1 million people were murdered by Nazi occupiers who set up the camp before it was liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945, just months before the end of the World War II.

“We Poles, on whose land — occupied by Nazi Germans at that time — the Germans built this extermination industry and this concentration camp, are today the guardians of memory,” Polish President Andzrej Duda, who accompanied the survivors on their walk, said.

“May the memory of all the dead live on, may they rest in peace,” he added.

Ceremonies began early on January 27. The main commemoration, organized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, was held in a special tent built over the gate to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. One of the symbols of the commemoration was a freight car that stood directly in front of the gate.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended the event, which came as Scholz faces a difficult reelection campaign amid the rise of the anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party during and before his term in office.

“Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, grandparents: more than one million individuals with dreams and hopes were murdered in Auschwitz by Germans,” Scholz wrote on X.

“We mourn their deaths. And express our deepest sympathy. We‘ll never forget them. Not today, not tomorrow.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in neighboring Poland to mark the event after placing a candle at the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv, where more than 30,000 Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis over two days in 1941.

“It was the Nazis’ deliberate attempt to erase an entire nation—to kill all its people and destroy everything that reminded the world of the Jewish nation. Six million victims,” he wrote in a post on X.

“The crime of the Holocaust must never be repeated, yet, sadly, the memory of it is gradually fading. And the evil that seeks to destroy the lives of entire nations still exists in the world today.”

In a proclamation released by the White House, President Donald Trump was quoted as saying, “In the years since the liberation of Auschwitz on this day eight decades ago, the grave offenses that took place during the Holocaust and the cries of the Jewish people have echoed throughout the halls of history.”

None of the foreign leaders attending the ceremonies made public speeches. Organizers said they wanted the day to focus on the few remaining survivors — about 50 were at the camp for the commemorations.

Leon Weintraub, 99 years old and born in Lodz, Poland, was confined during the war with his family in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto before being sent to Auschwitz in August 1944. He eventually was separated from his family and moved to a labor camp.

“This Nazi camp symbolizes the unprecedented cruelty in the treatment of people throughout history, a place where the techniques of mass and industrial murder were first introduced,” Weintraub told those at the ceremonies.

Attendee Szymon Czyszek of Poland told RFE/RL, “I’m holding a picture of my grandfather, who was brought to Auschwitz in July 1941. He was a political prisoner because he was not afraid to speak his mind about the Germans.”

“I think we just have to remember that if you treat people without dignity, atrocities like this can happen again, and we should never let that happen.”

The anniversary also marked International Holocaust Memorial Day. On the eve of the commemorations in Poland, an Israeli government agency dedicated to supporting survivors of the Holocaust issued its yearly report estimating that more than 123,000 Holocaust survivors currently live in Israel.

They include 41,751 people who survived Nazi persecution and 44,334 who fled the advance of Nazi forces particularly in the former Soviet Union.

A third group of 37,630 survivors were victims of anti-Semitism during the war outside of Europe — mainly Jews living under the French Vichy regime in Morocco and Algeria, as well as Iraqi Jews.

The report also mentions 133 Israelis who fought during World War II in the ranks of the Allied forces.