President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki issued special messages on Friday, January 27, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The day was proclaimed by the United Nations in 2005, with January 27 chosen for its symbolism, being the date when the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in 1945.
'Remembrance and truth about the Holocaust must endure'
Poland’s president said in a tweet: “January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Remembrance and truth about the Holocaust must endure and serve as a warning to every successive generation.”
'Many of those killed in the Holocaust were Polish citizens'
Meanwhile, the Polish prime minister said in a Facebook post: “Six million is the number of the victims of the Holocaust. Children accounted for one third of this figure. A great many of those killed in the Holocaust were Polish citizens. Today we are observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the UN in 2005.”
Morawiecki quoted his words from a year ago: “As the spectre of a new war looms over Europe, only truth, cooperation, solidarity and drawing the right lessons from tragic history can guarantee that it will not be repeated.”
“These words have never been more relevant than today,” he wrote.
'Solidarity and consistent support for Ukraine'
Morawiecki added: ”Today we must come together to staunchly oppose criminal demons which yet again are committing genocide in the east of Europe. Out of respect for Holocaust victims and with the wisdom gleaned from this tragedy.”
He also said: “Let’s bear in mind that Putin is building new camps in the east. Solidarity and consistent support for Ukraine are effective means of ensuring that history will not come full circle.”
78 years since liberation of Auschwitz
Meanwhile, Holocaust survivors and officials took part in ceremonies in southern Poland to mark the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
US Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and a group of foreign diplomats posted in Poland were among those attending the ceremonies at the site of the former Nazi German death camp, together with about 20 surviving former prisoners.
Russian officials had not been invited.
Speakers at the main commemorative event included two Auschwitz survivors, a Jewish woman named Eva Umlauf and Zdzisława Włodarczyk of Poland.
The last to take the floor was Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in the southern Polish city of Oświęcim.
Cywiński told the gathering: “The Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp emerged out of a lust for power and megalomania.”
The ceremonies concluded with Jews and Christians saying prayers together, after which those gathered lit candles at the ruins of the Auschwitz crematorium.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp operated in German-occupied southern Poland between May 1940 and January 1945. It was the largest of the German Nazi concentration and death camps during World War II.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs and people of many other nationalities, perished there before the camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers on January 27, 1945.
The Holocaust claimed the lives of some 6 million Jews, including 2 million children, and a great many of the victims were Polish citizens, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvp.info, dw.com/en