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The entrance gate of the former concentration camp in Auschwitz
Photo: IMAGO/Artur Widak / IMAGO/NurPhoto
On January 27, 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz in occupied Poland.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz used the anniversary to recall Germany's historical responsibility for the murder of millions of Jews.
"The suffering of six million innocently murdered Jews is unforgotten - just like the suffering of the survivors," wrote the SPD politician on Twitter in the morning.
To ensure that this never happens again, Germany's historical responsibility is remembered on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Bundestag wanted to commemorate the victims of National Socialism in the morning.
At a memorial service in the Bundestag at 10 a.m., Holocaust survivor Rozette Kats will have a say.
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas will open the special event, which will also be attended by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The focus of the commemoration this year is on people who were persecuted by the National Socialists because of their sexual orientation or identity.
The Nazis murdered more than a million people in Auschwitz.
Since 1996, the date of liberation has been celebrated in Germany as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Wreaths will be laid in memory in many places this Friday.
Parallel to the Russian war of aggression
The International Auschwitz Committee drew a parallel with Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
"This year, the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps are confronted with new pain and terror on this day of remembrance, which is always painful for them: the memory of their murdered family members and fellow prisoners is mixed with horror at the horror of a new war in Europe" , the committee said in the morning.
The survivors of Auschwitz remembered with gratitude the Red Army soldiers who liberated them.
"They are all the more aware that these days the Russian army is waging a brutal war of aggression in Ukraine, from which the survivors of the Holocaust in Ukraine are also suffering, and whose memories are flooded with new horrors and trauma," the Auschwitz declaration reads -Committees.
mrc/dpa