Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz recalled Germany’s historical responsibility for the murder of millions of Jews during the National Socialist era. “The suffering of six million innocently murdered Jews is unforgotten – just like the suffering of the survivors,” wrote the SPD politician on Twitter on Friday. 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.
On January 27, 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz in occupied Poland. The Nazis had murdered more than a million people there. Since 1996, the date has been celebrated in Germany as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Wreaths will be laid in memory in many places this Friday.
“Dismay at the horror of a new war in Europe”
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 on Friday morning.
The survivors of Auschwitz remembered with gratitude the Red Army soldiers who liberated them. “They are all the more aware that the Russian army is currently 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 statement said -Committees.
