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The Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Tuesday marked the 59th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp by the Soviet Army. The observances began with a “March of Silence” through the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum on Monday.
Several score former Auschwitz prisoners took part in the march from the Arbeit Macht Frei gate to the Death Wall adjacent to the Death Block, and then to the Auschwitz (Main Camp) crematorium building, where participants in the march laid wreaths and lighted candles.
A Memorial Evening was held in the evening in the Museum Cinema, and former prisoners read poetry written in the camp.
The anniversary observances were organized by the Auschwitz Protection Society, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, and the City and Commune of Oświęcim.
Fifty-nine years ago, soldiers from the 100th Lviv Infantry Division, 60th Army, I Ukrainian Front, commanded by General-Major Fyodor Krasavin, liberated the German death camp. 231 Soviet soldiers perished in the fighting for the camp and the city.
At least 1,300,000 people, including approximately 1,100,000 Jews from all over Europe and some 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and 25,000 prisoners of other nationalities were deported to the Auschwitz complex between 1940 and 1945. The Germans exterminated at least 1,100,000 people, including approximately 960,000 Jews, 70-75,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and 10-15,000 prisoners of other nationalities, at the camp.
There were several thousand prisoners in the camp at the moment of liberation. The Germans had given orders for the final evacuation and liquidation of the camp two weeks earlier. They led 56,000 men and women out of Auschwitz-Birkenau, many of whom lost their lives during the tragic evacuation known as the “March of Death.”
