77th Anniversary

77th ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF GERMAN NAZI CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP AUSCHWITZ
27 JANUARY 2022

The beginning of extermination at Auschwitz constituted the main theme of the 77th anniversary of liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, only a small group of participants, mainly a dozen of survivors, gathered within the Memorial.

Among those who sat in the auditorium of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust there was also the French delegation led by Prime Minister Jean Castex, the delegation of Polish authorities led by Wojciech Kolarski, Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, as well as ambassadors of many countries. Honorary patronage over commemorative events was extended by Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland.

The year 1942 was crucial in shaping the function of the Auschwitz camp as an extermination centre. In the spring of that year, the Germans began mass deportations of Jews to Auschwitz, SS doctors began carrying out selections among the deported Jews on the unloading ramp, and the camp authorities decided to set up two makeshift gas chambers in the vicinity of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. After a visit to Auschwitz by SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler in July 1942, the construction of four industrial crematoria and gas chambers began. 

Until the liberation of the camp by soldiers of the Red Army, German Nazis murdered approx. 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, the Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities.

HONORARY PATRONAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND ANDRZEJ DUDA