Zelensky attends events marking 80th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation
That's according to the president's press service, Ukrinform reports.
The event was attended by about 50 former prisoners who managed to survive torture in one of the largest Nazi death camps.
The crimes committed by the Nazis against people on the territory of the current museum are reminded, in particular, by a freight car where SS doctors selected deported Jews and sent most of them to their deaths in gas chambers.
The commemoration ceremony took place at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the Polish city of Oświęcim. It was attended by the heads and representatives of nearly 60 states and international organizations, including the King of the United Kingdom, members of the royal families of Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, as well as the Crown Prince of Norway and the Crown Princess of Sweden. Also present were the presidents of Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Germany, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Finland, France, Czechia, Montenegro, and Switzerland; the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the prime ministers of Belgium, Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Croatia, and Sweden. Additionally, the presidents of the European Council and the European Parliament were in attendance.
During World War II, over a million people perished at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, most of them Jews. The camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, when soldiers of the 100th Lviv Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front opened the gates of the main camp.
Sixty years after the camp's liberation, the United Nations General Assembly declared January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Zelensky stated on Telegram that there are very few people left who survived the Auschwitz death camp.
“Today they spoke to the leaders of almost 60 countries and the whole world about how ruthless people can be whose minds are poisoned by hate, about what the prisoners had to go through in these camps, and about how they were liberated on January 27, eighty years ago. For thousands of Jewish survivors, this day became a second birthday. But millions of people died,” the president said.
