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Germany’s Merkel to visit Auschwitz for first time

22.11.2019 15:00
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to visit the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz, today a memorial site in southern Poland, for the first time since she took office 14 years ago.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.EPA/FELIPE TRUEBA

Polish state news agency PAP cited German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung as saying that Merkel has accepted an invitation to attend ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, an organisation which supports and protects the memorial site, on December 6.

The German leader’s office confirmed that a visit is being planned, but gave no further information, PAP reported.

More than 1.1 million people were killed by the Germans at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Nazi-occupied southern Poland during World War II.

The victims were mostly European Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs and prisoners of other nationalities.

The German Auschwitz-Birkenau camp operated from 1940 until its liberation by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945.

(jh/pk)

Source: PAP