News
The grand anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz next year
The year 2019 at the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum will be primarily dedicated to preparations for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, which will be commemorated on 27 January 2020. A special team at the Museum responsible for the organization of this unique event will commence work right after the January commemoration of the 74th anniversary.
“Next year’s event will probably be the last of those big round anniversaries with the participation of such a large group of survivors, former Auschwitz prisoners. I hope they will come here from all over the world, as was the case in 2015,” said the Auschwitz Museum director, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński.
“The year 2020 will also be special due to two anniversaries related to the memory: The 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Stockholm Declaration, under which the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research was established, today the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance; and the 15th anniversary of the adoption of 27 January as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations General Assembly. Both events symbolically took place on 27 January, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Consequently, the major international commemoration event shall be organized at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial,” emphasized Piotr Cywiński.
Traditionally, the organizers of the anniversary event will be the International Auschwitz Council and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Work on this huge event will begin in January 2019. We will provide information on subsequent elements of the main and accompanying events throughout the year on a special anniversary website, which will be launched in February. Anyone interested in supporting financially this important event commemorating the victims of Auschwitz should please contact us.
Following the example of the 70th anniversary of the liberation, a special tent will be set up over the Gate of Death at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. In 2015, nearly 300 survivors from Poland and across the world attended the commemoration event. More than 50 leaders of countries and international organizations listened to the words of the witnesses. On that day, delegates of the Jewish diaspora, headed by the chairman of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, were also present at the Memorial. The commemoration was also attended by several representatives of institutions involved in work around the world for the memory of the Holocaust and the German camps.
More than 1,000 journalists from around the world were accredited for this event. The official television broadcast, which was transmitted live across the globe, was produced by Polish Television S.A. Over 250 television channels from various countries benefited from the transmission. According to data gathered, more than half a billion people watched the event live.
