Unfortunately, gaps in knowledge about the Holocaust and distorted perceptions of Germany’s crime against humanity are widespread, Klein criticized. In view of the fact that Holocaust survivors will soon no longer be able to report personally on what happened, the memorial sites will be of greater importance in the future. But: “We shouldn’t just leave it up to them and the schools to make educational offers in the culture of remembrance. I also see a need for companies, authorities, sports clubs and families in our country.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by Red Army soldiers on January 27, 1945. The extermination camp set up in Poland under German occupation is a symbol of the Nazi genocide of six million European Jews. A million of them died in the camp between 1940 and 1945 – as did 80,000 non-Jewish Poles, 25,000 Roma and 20,000 Soviet soldiers.
In Germany, January 27 has been celebrated since 1996 as a day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism.
