World Jewish News

300 Auschwitz survivors gather for ceremony marking 70th anniversary of liberation of Nazi death camp in presence of Polish and

About 300 Auschwitz survivors have gathered at the site of the former Nazi death camp to mark the 70th anniversary of its liberation.
The commemoration will be held at the site in southern Poland where 1.3 million people, mostly Jews, were killed between 1940 and 1945.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army of the Soviet Union on 27 January 1945.
Events on Tuesday include the laying of a wreath, a church service, and the lighting of candles at a memorial in the former death camp of Birkenau, which was part of the Auschwitz complex.
The main commemoration at the Auschwitz camp will be held at 15:30 CET in front of the "Gate of Death" in Birkenau, the fields adjacent to Auschwitz where the gas chambers and crematoria were built under the orders of Heinrich Himmler.
German President Joachim Gauck and French President Francois Hollande are among the national leaders travelling to Poland for the anniversary.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending, amid a row with Poland linked to Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
At the United Nations, commemorations planned for Tuesday, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, were cancelled because of a snowstorm in New York.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Israel's President Reuven Rivlin had been scheduled to speak along with the head of Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. It has tentatively been rescheduled for Wednesday, depending on the weather.

EJP