June 14, 1940, when the first transport of 728 Poles arrived from a prison in the city of Tarnów, is widely considered the date Auschwitz began operating.
According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in the southern city of Oświęcim, the commemorations will begin at 11 a.m. local time, with the laying of wreaths and candles at the Death Wall in the courtyard of Block 11 at the former Auschwitz I camp.
Thousands of people, most of them Poles, were executed there by German forces during World War II. Poland's national anthem will also be played.
At noon, former prisoners, Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska and members of national and local authorities will lay flowers at a memorial plaque marking the arrival of the first transport of Polish prisoners.
The plaque is mounted on a building of the Małopolska State University of Applied Sciences near the museum. German authorities housed the first prisoners in the building's basement before the camp was ready.
The commemorations will continue with a religious service at the St. Maximilian Centre in the nearby village of Harmęże.
The church's basement houses the monumental exhibition Labyrinths of Memory by Marian Kołodziej, an artist who arrived at Auschwitz in the first transport.
The work reflects on the suffering of camp prisoners and the sacrifice of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a fellow inmate.
On June 14, 1940, the first transport of 728 Polish political prisoners arrived at Auschwitz from a prison in the southern city of Tarnów. The group included soldiers from Poland's 1939 defence campaign, members of underground resistance organisations, as well as high school and university students.
Of the 728 prisoners in the first transport, 239 survived the war. The last known survivor, Włodzimierz Bujakowski, died in Cork, Ireland, in October 2020.
Overall, about 150,000 Poles were imprisoned at Auschwitz. Roughly half died there, while many others perished after being transferred to other camps.
In its early years, Auschwitz primarily held Polish prisoners, for whom the camp was originally established. By mid-1942, the number of Jewish prisoners had equaled the number of Poles. From 1943 onward, Jews became the largest group of inmates, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Historians estimate that at least 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, most of them Jews. The victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities.
The camp was liberated by Soviet forces on January 27, 1945.
June 14 is observed in Poland as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of German Nazi Concentration Camps and Death Camps.
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Source: IAR, PAP