Due to the unprecedented circumstances of the state of epidemic threat caused by the coronavirus pandemic, events commemorating the anniversary had a different character than initially planned. Commemorative events on a mass scale were impossible to organize. Many of the scheduled events, in particular exhibitions, have been held online. They can be found on the special website: 14june.auschwitz.org.
The Museum has prepared for instance:
ONLINE LECTURE: "Beginnings of Auschwitz", Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Research Center of the Auschwitz Memorial
ONLINE LESSON: "Poles at Auschwitz"
ONLINE EXHIBITION: ‘I have been in the concentration camp Auschwitz since 14 June…’ Camp letters of Tadeusz Korczowski.
Symbolical commemoration took place at the Memorial on 14 June.
Two Auschwitz survivors took place in the events commemorating the anniversary together with the delegation of Polish authorities, headed by the President of Poland Andrzej Duda.
Polish national anthem was played in front of Block 11. Wreaths were laid under the Death Wall in the courtyard of Block 11 by the President of the Republic of Poland, Elżbieta Witek, Marshal of the Sejm, Prof. Piotr Gliński, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage as well as Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, Director of the Memorial.
“In memory of the visit on the National Day of Remembrance of German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps Victims; to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the first mass transport of Poles to KL Auschwitz; paying tribute to the memory of the victims, incarcerated, murdered and tortured by the functionaries of Hitler’s Third Reich; with appreciation and gratitude for directors and staff of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim – the custodians and guardians of this place, which constitutes a shocking symbol of crime, terror and extermination; deeply convinced that the truth about what had happened here during the Second World War will remain a warning for the entire mankind forever. No more war, hatred, racism”, President Andrzej Duda wrote in the Museum memory book.
In his special speech on the occasion of the anniversary, minister Piotr Gliński announced the creation of the New Polish Exhibition at the Auschwitz Memorial, to be financed from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage: “Advanced works are already carried out in order for the exhibition to be ready within the next three years. It will constitute a multidimensional, modern presentation, so important for spreading the knowledge and continuing commemoration activities and so important for the families of Polish victims, still bearing the trauma of their ancestors”.