Dates to Remember

27/01/1945: Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27th January 1945. They found several thousand emaciated survivors and the smouldering remains of the gas chambers and crematoria – the Nazi attempt to destroy evidence of their crimes against humanity. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest Nazi killing camp, murdering approximately 1.1 million men, women and children.

Auschwitz-Birkenau has become a symbol of the horror of industrialised murder, and what can happen when hatred is left unchecked.

It is on the anniversary of the liberation of the camp that we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, and take time to reflect on where we are now. We remember the victims of Nazi persecution and murder, and those killed in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Further Information

Read more about life in the camps
Find out more about Holocaust Memorial Day
Read testimony from survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau Freddie Knoller