scope of your abilities. But do something. Act. You will recover from feelings of helplessness and apathy. Take action. Begin. But always: remember. Let your memory finally come alive. Today,” he emphasized.
After the speeches, rabbis and Christian clergy of various denominations prayed by reciting the Kaddish and Psalm 42. At the end of the commemoration, Survivors and heads of state delegations laid candles in front of a historic freight wagon placed before the main gate of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.
Between speeches, the works of four composers deported to Auschwitz were heard. The Jews, German Simon James and Czech Gideon Klein, did not survive. The other two survived; they died many years after the war. They were a Pole, Jozef Kropinski, and a Polish Jew, Szymon Laks. Their compositions were performed by a clarinet quartet consisting of: Grzegorz Tobis, Piotr Wybraniec, Waldemar Żarów and Tomasz Żymła.
Earlier on January 27, 2025, in the morning—before the official commemorations—a group of Auschwitz Survivors, together with the President of the Republic of Poland and the Museum Director, laid wreaths at the Death Wall in the former Auschwitz I camp.
On the day of the commemoration, Polish Television and the Auschwitz Museum also produced an international television studio. Its guests included two Survivors and many personalities representing not only institutions related to the history of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, but also many guests from the world of culture, corporations, media, and politics.
On the day of the commemorations, King Charles of the United Kingdom, the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the President of France, and the President of Switzerland Karin Keller-Sutter all made brief visits to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum, whereas on January 26, President Maia Sandu of Moldova visited the grounds of the former camp.
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Until the liberation of camp premises by the Red Army soldiers, German Nazis murdered in Auschwitz 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs as well as the representatives of other nationalities. Today, Auschwitz constitutes for the world the symbol of the Shoah and atrocities of the Second World War. In 2005 the United Nations established January 27th as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.