News
Representative of the Museum at the commeoration of the 78th aniversarry of liberation of Auschwitz
On Friday, 27 January 2023, Dr. Violetta Rezler-Wasielewska, Director of the Museum, attended commemorations of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi death camp.
The commemorations refer to the dat of 27 January 1945, when soldiers of the 60th Army of the Firts Ukrainian Front opened the gates of KL Auchwitz – the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp where approximately 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners-of-war (also transported from Lamsdorf) and many people of other nationalities, perished.
The main commemoration events took place in the building of the so-called Sauna on the grounds of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The programme of the event included Testimonies of Survivors as well as saying prayers and lighting of candles at the ruins of the gas chamber and the crematorium IV. The guiding theme of the 78th anniversary was the process of planning, creating and expanding the system of dehumanisation and genocide at Auschwitz, which was particularly strongly underlined by the words of survivor Marian Turski: "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky".
The eighteen witnesses to history, who attended the event, were accompanied by Minister Wojciech Kolarski from the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and other representatives of state authorities from Poland, the Second Gentleman of the United States Douglas Emhoff, the Minister of Culture of Slovenia Asta Vrečko, the Minister of Veterans and Remembrance from France Patricia Mirallès, ambassadors and diplomats, representatives of the clergy, regional authorities, local self-governments, the museum and memorial officials.
