WARSAW, Poland (AP) 鈥� Holocaust survivors, politicians and regular people commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, gathering at somber events across Europe and beyond to reflect on Nazi Germany’s killing of millions of people.
is observed each year on Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the Nazi German death camps. The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2005 establishing the day as an .
鈥淭he attempt, carried out by Nazi Germany, to erase the Jews from the face of Europe encapsulates, in an emblematic way, all the evil that human beings are capable of committing when they allow themselves to be infected 鈥� out of superficiality, indifference, cowardice, or self-interest 鈥� by the virus of hatred, racism, and oppression,鈥� Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in a gathering with survivors in Rome.
At Auschwitz, located in an area of southern Poland which was under German occupation during World War II, Polish President Karol Nawrocki joined survivors for a remembrance ceremony that ended with Jewish and Christian clergy reciting prayers.
Bernard Offen, a 96-year-old survivor told participants that in today’s world he sees 鈥渟igns I know too well.鈥�
鈥淚 see hatred resurgent. I see violence beginning to be justified once again,鈥� Offen said. “I see people who believe their anger is more valuable than another human life. I say this because I am an old man who has seen where indifference leads to. And I say this because I believe that 鈥� I truly believe 鈥� that we can choose differently.鈥�
Nazi German forces killed some 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, most of them Jews, but also Poles, Roma and others. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945. In all, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust 鈥� in ghettos, concentration camps and shot at close range in fields and forests of .
In the heart of Berlin, candles burned at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs which honors the 6 million victims and stands as a powerful symbol of Germany’s remorse.
Other countries are still struggling to come to terms with the complicity of their ancestors. Mattarella condemned the complicity of ordinary Italians in the fascist-era racial laws, which persecuted Italy鈥檚 Jewish community, and deportation of its Jews.
As in recent years, Russian representatives were not invited to the observances at Auschwitz due to the country鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine.
鈥楤ecome my witness鈥�
Pavel Jelinek, a 90-year-old survivor from the city of Liberec 鈥� a Czech city with a prewar Jewish population of 1,350 鈥� told those gathered in the upper house of the Czech Parliament that he was now the last living of the 37 Jews who returned to the city after the war.
There are an estimated 196,600 down from 220,000 a year ago, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Their median age is 87, and nearly all 鈥� some 97% 鈥� are 鈥渃hild survivors鈥� who were born 1928 and later, the group said.
Though the world’s community of survivors is shrinking, some are still telling their stories after all these years.
In Britain, King Charles and Queen Camilla held a reception for survivors. A Holocaust survivor also addressed the British Cabinet in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as a first. Government members wiped away tears as 95-year-old Mala Tribich described how Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 destroyed her childhood.
She recalled being forced into hard labor at the age of 12 as the first Nazi ghetto was established in her hometown of Piotrkow Trybunalski, and spoke of the hunger, disease and suffering there. The Nazis killed her mother, father and sister. She was sent to Ravensbr眉ck and then to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated by the British Army in April 1945.
She urged the Cabinet members to fight antisemitism 鈥� and to remember.
鈥淪oon, there will be no eyewitnesses left,鈥� she told them. 鈥淭hat is why I ask you today not just to listen, but to become my witness.鈥�
‘Unity that saves lives is needed’
Many leaders also reflected on the upheaval in today鈥檚 world.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union鈥檚 foreign policy chief, warned about rising antisemitism and new threats. She noted that AI-generated content is now being used “to blur the line between fact and fiction, distort historical truth, and undermine our collective memory.鈥�
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country has been under attack from Russia for four years, said that just as the world united to defeat the Nazis in 1945, it 鈥渕ust act the same way now.”
鈥淲henever hatred and war threaten nations, unity that saves lives is needed,鈥� Zelenskyy said.
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Associated Press writers Karel Janicek in Prague, Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv, Danica Kirka in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
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