60th Anniversary of Auschwitz - Birkenau Liberation
On 27 January 2005 HRH Prince Edward represented HM Queen Elizabeth II at the 60th Anniversary of Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz - Birkenau. HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex together with Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary and three Holocaust survivours - Bob Obuscovski (76), Zigi Shipper (75) and David Herman (77) - represented the United Kingdom at the service. The ceremony well attended by world leaders, including French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as a number of European royals.
T he gathered dignitaries were there to commemorate the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. The event also served as memorial to the estimated 1,500,000 people who died at the camp and the millions more that were killed as part of Hitler's final solution. HRH Prince Edward joined the others attending in l ighting a candle in memory of those that lost their lives at the camp.
Auschwitz - Birkenau is now a museum and monument to the Nazis' attempts between 1939-1945 to eradicate European Jews, gypsies, Poles, Slavs, homosexuals and Communists. It is hoped that the commemoration of the liberation would draw attention to the need for people to remember the atrocities of World War II, notably the Holocaust, so that the world will never again face such horrors.
In London at St. James Palace, HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh met Holocaust survivours. Later in the day the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh along with Tony Blair attended a service in Westminster Hall. Over 600 concentration camp survivors attended the ceremony. Commenting on today's ceremony, Mr Straw, said: "Today, we remember the horrors of the Holocaust's millions of innocent victims. We have to continuously learn from the lessons of history. Future generations cannot be allowed to forget the Holocaust. It is a time to reflect on the past but also a time to look to the future. Auschwitz has become a symbol of suffering and persecution on a scale, which is unique in human history. It acts as a reminder to us all that the international community must work together to ensure that such atrocities can never be allowed to happen again."
Facts about the Holocaust
The Nazis' final assault on the Jews from 1933-1945
1942: Gas chambers were built at Birkenau concentration camp and the mass transports of people, deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime, began. The majority of people sent were gassed immediately. About 900,000 gassed at Birkenau An estimated 1.1m died at Auschwitz-Birkenau and its sub-camps 1m of them were Jewish