The day's ceremonies began at 9 a.m. when Polish President Andrzej Duda and a group of survivors and officials laid wreaths at the Death Wall where thousands of prisoners were executed during World War II in the former German concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland.
The main memorial ceremony to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the camp was scheduled for later in the day.
More than 50 former prisoners and survivors were expected to attend that event in the southern Polish city of Oświęcim on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, alongside senior officials from 53 countries and seven international organisations.
The presidents of Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy and Finland were among those expected to take part, together with the prime ministers of Canada, Croatia, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.
The list of guests also included Britain's King Charles, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Israel's Education Minister Yoav Kisch.
Other foreign dignitaries who have confirmed their attendance included King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, and John Dunlap, the head of the lay Catholic order of the Knights of Malta.
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Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, were expected to lead the US delegation during the ceremonies, while Russia was not invited due to its invasion of Ukraine.
The main commemorative event was due to begin at 4 p.m. local time in front of the gate to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, featuring survivors, official delegations and other participants gathered together under a large tent, partially covering the site's original structure.
The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ron Lauder, was scheduled to speak at the event.
Lauder, who chairs the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation, was set to deliver remarks alongside Auschwitz survivors and Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
The ceremony was expected to pay tribute to the victims, emphasise the critical importance of Holocaust education, and reaffirm the global commitment to combat antisemitism and hatred, according to the World Jewish Congress.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp operated in German-occupied southern Poland between May 1940 and January 1945. It was the largest of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camps during World War II.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs and prisoners of many other nationalities, perished at the camp before it was liberated by Soviet soldiers on January 27, 1945.
Today, Auschwitz stands as a powerful symbol of the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II. In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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Source: IAR, PAP, auschwitz.org