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The Sixty-Seventh Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

The main ceremony to mark the sixty-seventh anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp will be held on Friday, January 27. President Bronisław Komorowski of the Republic of Poland has extended his official patronage over the event.

The seventieth anniversary of the start of the extermination of Jews in the Birkenau gas chambers at Auschwitz falls in 2012. After the testing of killing with Zyklon-B gas in the summer and fall of 1941, this largest of the concentration camps already in existence went on to become at the same time a center for direct extermination on a mass scale.

The Nazi Germans adapted two village farmhouses for this purpose at first, before going on to build four large gas chamber-crematorium complexes and place them in operation. By the time Red Army soldiers liberated the grounds of the camp, the Nazi Germans had murdered about 1,100,000 people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews but also including Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and people of other ethnic backgrounds and nationalities.

For the world today, Auschwitz is the symbol of the Holocaust and the barbarism of World War II. In 2005, the United Nations proclaimed January 27 an International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Former prisoners of the camp will take part in the anniversary ceremonies, joined by representatives of state authorities, the diplomatic corps, clergy of various faiths, local and regional communities and officials, invited guests, and all who wish to participate.

The main observances begin at 11:30 at the Culture Center in Oświęcim. Because of the limited seating available at the Center, we ask all those desirous of attending this portion of the event to contact us.

The main ceremony in commemoration of the victims will be held at the Monument to the Victims at Birkenau.

Schedule of observances:

Friday, January 27, 2012

• 9:45 AM – Homage to the Victims at the Death Wall on the Auschwitz I grounds
• 11:30-12:30 – Anniversary observances at the Culture Center in Oświęcim
• 1:45-2:15 PM - Main ceremony in commemoration of the victims at the Monument to the Victims

Contact:
e-mail: tel. + 48 33 844 81 01 / 81 86

Press information: accreditation is not required for the observances, but we ask media wishing to attend the Culture Center event or to operate satellite trucks to contact the Museum press bureau after January 15 (). Organizational and technical details to follow on the Museum website.