Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap from me, Jakub Krupa.
Here are the three things to take away from today’s blog:
Auschwitz survivors repeatedly warned about the rise of antisemitism in Europe (16:45) and the risk posed by far-right and nationalist parties (17:44), as they spoke of the need to renew the vows to “not only to remember, … but also to warn and to teach that hatred only begets more hatred” (17:26). Many of their speeches referenced the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas and the crisis in the Middle East.
Royals, heads of state and government, and senior officials from over 50 countries, including Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Poland, took part in the events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration camp in Auschwitz, but none of them spoke at the main event after organisers decided to prioritise survivors (12:54).
Closing the event, Auschwitz museum director, Piotr Cywiński, issued a rallying cry to protect the memory of the Holocaust and Auschwitz, stressing that “without memory, you have no history; you have no experience, and no point of reference” (18:26).
That’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. See you tomorrow.
I leave you with pictures from other Holocaust remembrance events around the world.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Earlier today, I brought you comments from British monarch Charles III as he spoke during his visit at the Jewish Community Centre in Kraków (14:51).
But his words sparked a controversy among conservatives in Poland, with former Polish deputy foreign minister and former ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, criticising him for not explicitly mentioning the Polish victims of Auschwitz.
In his speech, Charles said:
It is a moment when we recall the six million Jews, old and young, who were systematically murdered, together with Sinti, Roma, disabled people, members of the LGBT community, political prisoners, and so many others upon whom the Nazis inflicted their violence and hatred.
In a viral social media post, Magierowski commented:
With all due respect: mentioning Jews, Sinti, Roma, the LGBT community, disabled people & political prisoners, and leaving out Polish victims (among “many others”, I presume), just raised my eyebrows. And I am doing my utmost to be as diplomatic and as phlegmatic as it gets.
Former Polish ambassador to the UK Arkady Rzegocki said: “Sad.”
Amid much discussion as to how the stories of Holocaust survivors can be kept alive when they are no longer able to tell them, the Association of Jewish Refugees, (AJR) the UK’s national organisation representing and supporting them, has established a Holocaust Testimony UK Portal and launched an exhibition called 80 Lives/80 Objects.
Michael Newman, the AJR’s CEO told the Guardian: “The AJR is acutely sensitised to the critical need to perpetuate the history and experiences of our members.”
Newman said he hoped that “hearing survivors’ accounts of the horrors of Auschwitz and disseminating the resources we have built will help combat increased antisemitism and stem Holocaust distortion, as we all look to secure ‘a better future’ for society, the theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day”.
The Testimony portal is an easy to use archive which will allow everyone from relatives and survivors, academics and educators as well as the general public, to access the testimony of those who experienced Nazi oppression, and settled in the UK after the war.
The portal draws on the AJR’s own Refugee Voices archive, and for the first time offers public access to interviews collected by Natasha Kaplinsky for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, as well as all interviews collected by the USC Shoah Foundation with a UK connection.
Among the testimonies are those gathered by the Wiener Holocaust Library, the Imperial War Museum and the British Library as well as from several leading overseas institutions which have all been brought together in one place.
‘80 Objects/80 Lives’ is a digital social media exhibition, presenting objects from the filmed testimony of Holocaust survivors and refugees, and was developed under the auspices of the UK International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance together with the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation and the AJR.
Survivors and world leaders lighting candles in Auschwitz - in pictures
'Do something, act,' Auschwitz museum director issues a rallying cry to protect memory of the Holocaust
Closing the event, Auschwitz museum director, Piotr Cywiński, issued a rallying cry to protect the memory of the Holocaust and Auschwitz.
He said:
Every generation needs a lens to evaluate its time. …
Memory hurts. Memory helps. Memory guides. Memory warns. Memory raises awareness. Memory obliges.
Who are you without memory? Without memory, you have no history. You have no experience, and no point of reference.
If you have no memory, you may not know which path to choose. And if you truly lack memory, be sure: your enemies will design one for you. …
Do something good - whatever you can, in the best way you can. Do it for others, and … do it without the scope of your abilities.
But do something. Act.
His speech ends the formal part of the ceremony, followed by prayers and tributes as survivors and leaders light commemorative candles.
'Eerie parallels' between 1930s and 2025, World Jewish Congress president says
Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, spoke on behalf of the Auschwitz museum’s major donors.
In a strongly worded speech, he warned against the dramatic rise of antisemitism,
Here are excerpts from his speech:
Ten years ago, in 2015, Auschwitz survivor, Roman Kent, stood here on this platform at the 70th anniversary of the liberation. He said these words: We don’t want our past to be our children’s future.
Roman Kent died six years later, but his words haunt us today because if Roman Kent was here and saw what was happening to the Jewish people around the world in 2025, he would cry.
Referring directly to the 7 October attacks by Hamas, he said:
In a very fundamental way, what happened in Israel on October seventh, and what happened here at Auschwitz, have one common thread: the age-old hatred of Jews. …
Today, we see eerie parallels throughout the world, throughout Europe, North America, even Australia.
Today, Jewish professors have been fired. Today, Jewish children have been told to hide any outward signs of being Jewish. Today, there are mass demonstrations against Jews. Today, we see vile comments all over social media. Then I remind you, this is not 1933 or 1939. This is 2025. The hatred of Jews had its willing supporters then, and it has them now.
He explicitly warned against the “indifference” towards rising antisemitism, saying that “the lessons of Auschwitz are not just for Jews, they are for the entire world.”
That’s because Jews are the canaries in the coalmine. When the canary dies, miners know they have to get out of that mine as fast as possible. That canary died 15 months ago on 7 October, and that is the most consequential warning for the entire world. …
Today, I cannot stand here and look at these survivors and say that everything is OK as I have in the past. Because everything is not OK. Roman Kent’s words haunt us.
'Take seriously what the enemies of democracy preach," Auschwitz survivor warns against the rise of European far-right
Speaking next, Auschwitz survivor Leon Weintraub urged “young people to be sensitive to all expressions of intolerance and resentment towards those who are different,” while explicitly warning about the rise of “the enemies of democracy”.
Let us be very serious and let’s take seriously what the enemies of democracy preach. They really seek to implement the slogans they promote if they succeed in gaining power.
We must avoid the mistake of the 1930s when the world failed to take seriously the Nazi regime and their plans to create a state free of Jews, Roma, and people of different opinions, or sick, or those deemed unfit to live, were underestimated.
Weintraub also called out the existence of far-right nationalist movements in Poland and “in many European countries.”
It grieves me deeply to see in many European countries, but also in our country [Poland], Nazi-style uniforms and slogans openly paraded at marches, proudly proclaiming themselves nationalists and identifying themselves with the Nazi ideas, with the ideology … that murdered millions who were considered subhuman; this ideology which proclaims hostility and hatred towards others, sees racism, antisemitism, and homophobia as virtues.
This is occurring here in our country which has suffered so much with extensive damage under the Nazi occupation.
He ends his speech on a call that today’s commemoration “serves as a reminder of the inhumane treatment of individual, but also … a warning against the increasingly vocal movements of the radical and anti-democratic right.”
Updated
'We must ... transform violence, anger, hatred ... into a human and just world,' Auschwitz survivor urges
Speaking on behalf of the children of the Holocaust, author and Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman, said:
I’m here to talk about those who aren’t here … I would like to share some of my memories because I know that there are many survivors here who are struggling with their own.
I remember as a five-and-a-half-year-old child, watching from my hiding place … as all my little friends were rounded up and driven to their deaths, while the heart-breaking cries of their parents fell on deaf ears. After all the children were gone and the courtyard was empty, I thought to myself, Am I the only Jewish child left in the world? … Is my barrack next? I silently wondered. I thought that we all have to die, that it was normal. If you’re a Jewish child, you have to die.
Today, however, we all have an obligation not only to remember, … but also to warn and to teach that hatred only begets more hatred, killing more killing. Instead, our revenge has been to build a strong Jewish country and raise our families in peace. …
Eighty years after liberation, the world is again in crisis. Our Jewish Christian values have been overshadowed worldwide by prejudice, fear, suspicion and extremism. The rampant antisemitism that is spreading among the nations is shocking. … Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, is fighting for its very existence and its way of life.
We mourn not only the fallen soldiers and the hostages, but also the turbulence and mistrust in our society. We pray for strength, resilience, and of course, hope, which has to be part of our daily life.
We all, all of us, must reawaken our collective conscience to transform … this violence, anger, hatred, and malignancy that has so powerful gripped our society into a humane and just world before these terrible, terrible negative forces will destroy us all.
'People became so inhumane that it may happen again,' Auschwitz survivor repeats postwar warnings
Speaking next, another Auschwitz survivor, Janina Iwańska, delivered a detailed account of life within the camp, and ended with a stark warning:
The war finished in 1945. People all over the world were in euphoria. “Never again” was the slogan. People believed the war would never happen again and we would be forever happy. Picasso painted this dove of peace, symbolising that everything would be well, for ever.
Yet some people made specific predictions, saying that it is impossible for these things never to happen again because people became so inhuman that it may happen again.
In 1950, a Polish writer and essayist wrote something about the war in “Kultura” [a Polish-émigré literary-political magazine published first in Rome and then in Paris].
He wrote:
“If Europe ravaged by this madness is to avoid destruction, its people must learn to anticipate better the consequences of their actions. They must not disregard those who possess such foresight. For the older generation, this may be of lesser concern. My thoughts are with the young, those who have their lives ahead of them. War and chaos can erupt anywhere, leaving no place or reason to flee.”
Auschwitz survivor warns against ‘a huge rise of antisemitism’
Marian Turski, member of the International Auschwitz Council and Auschwitz survivor, has been speaking in the last few minutes.
In a moving speech rich of cultural references, he said:
One must not be afraid at all. We see in the contemporary world, today and now, a huge rise in antisemitism. That is precisely antisemitism that led to the Holocaust.
He praises American historian Deborah Lipstadt for “her courage, tenacity” in “fighting with Holocaust denial,” including her UK court battle against the discredited British historian, David Irving.
Turski continued:
Let us not fear demonstrating the same courage today when Hamas attempts to deny the massacre of the seventh of October.
Let us not be afraid to oppose the conspiracy theories saying that all the evil of this world results from a plot started by some indefinite social groups, and Jews are often mentioned as one of such.
He ends on a plea to work between countries to resolve conflicts and ensure “a peaceful, safe, and secure life for their children.”
Let us not fear convincing [each other] that one needs to have a vision not only of what is here today, but also what is going to come tomorrow and what will come in several decades.
He gets a standing ovation.
Updated
Auschwitz commemoration starts
The stream is now live at the top of this blog and here:
Auschwitz commemoration event about to start
The main ceremony is about to being in the next few minutes.
We will bring you the live stream at the top of this page as soon as it starts.
We will never forget Holocaust victims, Germany's Scholz pledges
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to “never forget” the victims of the Holocaust in a post on social media ahead of his visit to Auschwitz this afternoon.
Scholz said:
Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, grandparents: more than one million individuals with dreams and hopes were murdered in Auschwitz by Germans. We mourn their deaths. And express our deepest sympathy. We‘ll never forget them. Not today, not tomorrow.
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will attend the anniversary event, too.
Greek Jewish community marks the anniversary in Athens
The few survivors left in Greece – estimated at less than a dozen – have also marked today’s milestone anniversary. The country lost 90% of its Jewish community during the second world war. Most were exterminated at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The community’s rabbi Gabriel Negrin, who attended a wreath laying service at the Holocaust memorial in Athens, told the Guardian:
It is very important to remember all those people [who were lost] so that their memory is a lesson that not only educates us but gives us the strength never to repeat [what happened].
Today is not only a commemoration. It is an opportunity to educate ourselves that light is more important than darkness.
Antisemitism is still rife in Greece with Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials often vandalised.
Over 67,000 Greek Jews died during the four years that the Nazis occupied the southern European country.
“With very few of the survivors still alive, our duty and responsibility to pass onto the younger generation the respect, knowledge and memory of the Holocaust grows ever more important,” the Greek foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The most heinous crime, the mass murder against humanity itself during the second world war must NEVER AGAIN be repeated.”
One of the world’s largest Holocaust archives is accessible online for the first time after a three-year digitisation of much of the collection.
Announced on Holocaust Memorial Day, the Wiener Holocaust Library’s new online platform includes more than 150,000 items collected over nine decades. Users can view letters, pamphlets and photographs that record the rise of fascism in Britain and Europe.
The director of the library, Dr Toby Simpson, said the project had been in the works for more than 10 years and he hoped it would help it find a new audience of scholars and become a “new way of bearing witness in the digital age”.
Britain's King Charles hails Kraków Jewish community reborn 'from ashes of the Holocaust'
Britain’s King Charles III has just been to the Jewish Community Centre in Kraków, which he promised to help set up in 2002 and then opened in 2008, and he met with survivors and local leaders.
This is what he had to say:
It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world. And it is a moment when we recall the powerful testimonies of Survivors such as Lily Ebert, who so sadly passed away in October, and who collectively taught us to cherish our freedom, to challenge prejudice and never to be a bystander in the face of violence and hate.
In a world that remains full of turmoil and strife, and has witnessed the dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism, there can be no more important message. …
Here in Kraków, from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has been reborn. And there is no greater symbol of this rebirth than the Jewish Community Centre, in which we are gathered here today.
Standing on the steps of this wonderfully vibrant Centre some seventeen years ago, having encouraged its construction and taken immense pride in opening it, I was filled with a sense of hope and optimism at the life and energy that coursed through the building. So, returning today, along with World Jewish Relief, of which I am extremely proud to be Patron, that sense of hope and optimism has only grown.
Musk's call for Germans to 'move on' is 'an insult to the victims of Nazism,' Yad Vashem head says
Dani Dayan, chair of Israel’s Holocaust memorial centre Yad Vashem, has warned that Elon Musk’s call for Germans to “move on” from guilt about the Holocaust and other Nazi-era crimes was “an insult to the victims of nazism”.
“Contrary to Elon Musk’s advice, the remembrance and acknowledgment of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping German society,” Dayan said in a post on X yesterday, referencing Musk’s remarks at a far right rally in Germany on Saturday.
“Failing to do so is an insult to the victims of nazism and a clear danger to the democratic future of Germany,” Dayan added.
Dayan quoted Elon Musk’s X handle, effectively addressing the billionaire directly with his criticism.
Britain’s King Charles III will be among the many heads of states and governments attending today’s anniversary event in Auschwitz.
He has recently landed at Kraków Airport ahead of the main ceremony starting at 4pm CET. He will be the first British monarch to set foot on the site of Auschwitz.
Irish president Michael D Higgins faces criticism over speech at Holocaust Memorial Day event
Meanwhile in Ireland, the country’s president Michael D Higgins faced protests at the Holocaust Memorial Day event on Sunday, after he referenced the conflict in Gaza in his speech.
During the speech, he said:
It is to be hoped that those in Israel who mourn their loved ones, those who have been waiting for the release of hostages, or the thousands searching for relatives in the rubble in Gaza will welcome the long-overdue ceasefire for which there has been such a heavy price paid.
His words prompted an angry reaction from some in the audience, with “a number of people” leaving the venue or turning their back in protest. One person was ejected from the venue, but the Irish Times reported that “most stayed until the end.”
The newspaper explained “a number of senior representatives of the Jewish community had asked Mr Higgins not to give the keynote address because of critical comments he made about Israeli actions in Gaza, but the president has insisted he has always stood up against antisemitism.”
Speaking at the EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels this morning, Ireland’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Simon Harris defended the president’s comments.
“I understand there were a small number of people who protested, and of course, people have a right to protest. But I think the president was very clear, as is the government, as are the people of Ireland, in calling out the horrors of the Holocaust, making sure we remember that, … we acknowledge that each year.”
“I think the president was very clear in relation to … specific issues regarding the Holocaust and his absolute condemnation of the horror of the murder of the Jewish people, but also, I think rightly, mentioning the situation in the Middle East as well.”
“I am conscious, though, that this is a very, very sensitive time, and I do not want to say anything to distract from that,” he said.
Harris, making his debut in a new role after the last week’s government change, also said Ireland would provide “additional funding … for the Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation as well to continue to support the preservation of that site.”
“We must never forget and we must all say: never again. Ireland is very determined to continue to work to stamp out antisemitism in every way we can, both domestically and indeed at the European level.”
Irish prime minister Micheál Martin will be in attendance at today’s anniversary commemorations in Auschwitz.
Updated
EU extends Russia sanctions despite earlier Hungarian opposition, EU's Kallas confirms
Earlier today I reported on the EU’s plans to renew sanctions against Russia amid some opposition from the Hungarian government (9:54).
The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has now confirmed the sanctions have been extended.
In a social media post, she said:
Europe delivers: EU Foreign Ministers just agreed to extend again the sanctions on Russia. This will continue to deprive Moscow of revenues to finance its war. Russia needs to pay for the damage they are causing.
Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post that he had “received the requested guarantees regarding our country’s energy security.”
They have made it clear that the integrity of the energy infrastructure supplying the EU member states is a matter of security for the entire EU.
Fighting growing distortion of the Holocaust 'hugely challenging,' Auschwitz museum spokesperson says
In the last few minutes, our Europe correspondent Jon Henley talked with the Auschwitz museum spokesperson, Paweł Sawicki, and here is what he heard.
It’s clear to all of us that this is the last milestone anniversary where we can have a group of survivors that will be visible and who can be present at the site. Twenty years ago we had more than 1,000 survivors here; ten years ago it was 300. Five years ago we had 100, and today about 50. In ten years’ time, how many will there be?
That’s why it’s so incredibly important that we focus on these survivors, that we listen to their voices, their personal stories and their testimonies. That’s why we wanted such a simple, authentic ceremony: just music, the testimonies of four survivors. the gate to the camp, one of the train wagons that brought them here and that symbolises so much suffering.
Sawicki said this year’s anniversary carried particular weight because of growing distortion of the history of the Holocaust, fuelled particularly by misinformation and disinformation on social media. “It’s hugely challenging,” he said. “For people born 30 or 40 years ago, their grandparents lived through this – they learned their history at the family table.
But for today’s generations the Holocaust has become textbook history, and textbook history is a much more fragile history, it is much easier to distort it. Today’s young people get their history from social media. We are working to create material to show them the strategies of distortion that are being used, but for as long as we can we must listen to survivors’ voices.
“That’s something that is of really enormous significance when we talk about how the memory of Auschwitz is shaped.
A recent poll found that a significant proportions of young adults aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust (46% in France, 15% in Romania, 14% in Austria, 12% in Germany), many were unable to name Auschwitz or any of the other concentration camps, and many had encountered Holocaust denial or distortion particularly online (47% in Poland, 38% in Germany, 33% in the US).
Considerable numbers thought the number of Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust had been exaggerated, with many beliving 2 million or fewer Jews had been killed: 28% in Romania, 27% in Hungary, 24% in Poland, 21% in France, the US and Austria, 20% in the UK and 18% in Germany.
Updated
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni condemns ‘scourge’ of antisemitism
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is not in Auschwitz today, but in Bahrain where she is due to talk about bilateral cooperation and illegal migration after similar meetings in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
But in a strongly worded statement in Italian, published on her government’s website, she warned that “antisemitism was not defeated with the destruction of the gates of Auschwitz,” calling it “a scourge that has survived the Shoah, and has taken on different forms and is spread through new tools and channels.”
She also noted Italy’s responsibility as she recalled that the Holocaust was “conducted by the Hitler regime, which in Italy also found the complicity of the fascist one, through the infamy of the racial laws and involvement in the round-ups and deportations.”
AFP notes that as a young activist in 1996, Meloni said she believed World War II-era fascist ruler Benito Mussolini had been a “good politician”. She now claims that those nostalgic for fascism “have no place” in Italian political life.
Italy will be represented in Auschwitz by the country’s president, Sergio Mattarella.
Updated
'Everyone's mission ... to prevent evil from winning,' Ukraine's Zelenskyy says
Amid a host of official statements on Holocaust Memorial Day, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has confirmed he will be at this afternoon’s commemorations in Auschwitz, has warned that memories of the Shoah are growing weaker and said some countries are still trying to destroy entire nations.
“We must overcome the hatred that gives rise to abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetfulness,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. “And it is everyone’s mission to do everything possible to prevent evil from winning,” he added.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in 2022 “brought back to Ukrainian soil horrors that Europe has not seen since the second world war”. The Holocaust decimated Ukraine’s Jewish community, part of the Soviet Union during the second world war.
The European Council, which brings together the heads of state or government of the 27-nation bloc, warned in a statement that the continent was witnessing “an unprecedented increase in antisemitism on our continent not seen since the second world war” as well as an “alarming rise in ... Holocaust denial and distortion, as well as conspiracy theories and prejudice against Jews”.
More than ever, the Council said, it is “crucial that we uphold our responsibility to honour the victims of the Holocaust.” Respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights – including those of minority groups – “must and will guide our actions at all times, in line with the values upon which our European Union is founded. Never again is now.”
Putin hails Soviet soldiers for ending 'crushing terrible, total evil' of Auschwitz
I have explained earlier why no Russian delegation was invited to attend this year’s anniversary (9:35), with Auschwitz museum director Piotr Cywiński saying that as both Russians and Ukrainians were among the Red Army troops who liberated the camp, and that the war in neighbouring Ukraine is “a war conducted by one liberator against another”.
He added that he did not think that “a country that does not understand the value of liberty has something to do at a ceremony dedicated to the liberation.”
But this did not stop Russian president Vladimir Putin from hailing Soviet soldiers for ending the “total evil” of Auschwitz this morning.
“We will always remember that it was the Soviet soldier who crushed this terrible, total evil and won the victory, the greatness of which will forever remain in world history,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.
Updated
French president Emmanuel Macron has met with survivors of Nazi German concentration camps this morning, before travelling to Auschwitz for the event making the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp this afternoon.
Once in Poland, Macron will also meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Zelenskyy’s spokesperson.
'It's a cold, bright morning in Oświęcim'
Let’s go back to Auschwitz for a moment to hear from our Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, who is there:
It’s a cold, bright morning in Oświęcim, and we’ve just seen some of the 50 or so survivors who are attending the day’s events, some wearing blue-and-white striped scarves recalling their camp uniforms, light candles and lay wreaths at the Death Wall in the yard of Auschwitz Block 11, where thousands of inmates were executed by firing squad.
More than 1,000 journalists are accredited for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and with royalty, heads of state and government and other dignitaries from more than 50 countries attending the main ceremony this afternoon, security is exceptionally tight.
Kings Charles III of Britain, Felipe of Spain, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Philippe of Belgium, Frederik of Denmark, Haakon of Norway and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden are among the crowned heads expected, along with presidents Emmanuel Macron of France, Alexander von der Bellen of Austria, Sergio Mattarella of Italy and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz will also attend, as will other prime ministers from nations including Canada, Croatia and Ireland, while other countries are sending ministers of foreign affairs or ambassadors. Israel is represented by education minister Yoav Kisch and the US by special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The presidents of the European Parliament and Council are also attending.
That kind of audience means that apart from the TV cameras, the rest of the media – after a thorough frisking by Polish police – is in a huge white marquee on the edge of the camp.
The main ceremony starts at 4pm local time.
Updated
Over the weekend: 246,000 premises in Ireland still without power after Storm Éowyn
Two people were killed by falling trees during the record-breaking gusts of Storm Éowyn, which also damaged property and led to widespread power cuts across the UK and Ireland.
246,000 premises in Ireland are still without power on Monday morning, as the country reels off one of the strongest storms in a generation, with record-breaking wind speeds that brought widespread travel problems, power cuts and significant damage to infrastructure.
Over the weekend: Sweden, Latvia investigating damaged Baltic Sea cable
Talking about “regional defence and security cooperation,” the Baltic states mobilised on Sunday after an undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged.
Riga has said it was probably as a result of external influence, prompting Nato to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities.
Sweden’s security service has seized control of a vessel as part of the inquiry, the country’s prosecution authority said.
Nato said last week it would deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure and reserved the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat after repeated security incidents in the area.
European Commission’s vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy Henna Virkkunen has been speaking about the incident this morning:
EU Commission is taking hybrid threats very seriously, such as a recent one in the Baltic Sea. I want to commend Latvian and Swedish authorities for their very quick action.
Protection of critical infrastructure and also investigation of the incidents is responsibility of the member states, but commission is willing and capable to support member states. Our tools, they include operational support, financial support, and also information sharing.
We have to be prepared for very different hybrid threats … We are really living in times when everything can be weaponised, and now we have to take more actions to really prevent [attacks on] our critical infrastructures.
Over the weekend: Trump still wants Greenland
US president Donald Trump repeated his intention to take control over Greenland over the weekend, saying he thought the US “are going to have it,” and sparking further fears about the prospect of a territorial dispute between the US and Denmark, a Nato ally.
“I do believe Greenland, we’ll get because it really has to do with freedom of the world,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom.”
His latest comments follow a “horrendous” phone call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, during which Trump was said to be aggressive and confrontational in his attempt to take over the island.
Trump was reported to have threatened Denmark with targeted tariffs, essentially taxes on Danish exports to the US, according to a report in the Financial Times.
On Sunday, Frederiksen held an unexpected show-of-unity meeting of Nordic leaders in Copenhagen, with Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Finnish president Alexander Stubb all coming over for dinner.
In a post on Facebook after the meeting, she said they shared their concern about “the seriousness of the situation” when it comes to “regional defence and security cooperation” (what could she possibly mean?), but also sought to reassure Danes by saying “we must remember that Denmark is not alone.”
The issue could come up at the meeting of EU ministers today. I will keep an eye on this and let you know if we have more.
Over the weekend: Slovak government loses majority in parliament
On Friday, I left you with the news that tens of thousands of Slovaks were protesting against Robert Fico’s government after a tumultuous week that started with an ultimately abandoned (for now) attempt by the opposition parties to force a vote of confidence on its future.
Over the weekend, Fico suffered further political losses, with four lawmakers refusing to vote with the government until their political demands (nothing to do with the protests) were met, effectively leaving the prime minister short of a majority in the Národná rada. Michal Šimečka, leader of the opposition, jumped on the development to repeat his call for a snap election.
But on Sunday, deputy prime minister and environment minister Tomáš Taraba sought to play down fears that the latest crisis could bring Fico’s government down, telling TV Markíza that the negotiations with the rebels were ongoing and the two sides were “not far from a deal.”
I will keep an eye on this.
Over the weekend: Lukashenko wins seventh term in 'sham' election in Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko has secured a seventh five-year term as Belarusian president in a resounding election victory that western governments have rejected as a sham.
Exit polls on Sunday showed Lukashenko winning 103% 87.6% of the vote.
In the last hour, Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulated him on a “convincing” re-election showing he had the “undoubted” backing of the people. “You are always a welcome and dear guest on Russian soil,” he said.
But the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, was less impressed and said Sunday’s “sham election” had been “neither free, nor fair” and that the EU would maintain sanctions against the regime.
The EU will continue imposing restrictive and targeted measures against the regime, while financially supporting civil society, Belarusian democratic forces in exile, and Belarusian culture. Once Belarus embarks on a democratic transition, the EU is ready to support the country stabilise its economy and reform its institutions.
Belarusian opposition organised major protests against the vote, with the biggest one taking part in Warsaw, attended by the exiled leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
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EU sanctions on Ukraine expected to be rolled over, EU foreign policy chief says
Now let’s briefly take a look at other topics today.
One issue that EU foreign ministers will need to tackle at their Brussels meeting which is due to start any moment now is extending the bloc’s sanctions against Russia, which will expire at the end of the month.
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has been threatening to obstruct the extension as he wants to put pressure on Ukraine to change its decision to block the transit of Russian gas to Europe.
“I have put on the handbrake and asked European leaders to understand that this cannot continue,” he told a Hungarian radio.
“We asked the EU to tell the Ukrainians to restore the gas transit. What is closed has to be reopened. It is not a matter for Ukraine, it is an issue for Europe, for central Europe, and if the Ukrainians want help, for example sanctioning the Russians, then let’s reopen the transit routes.”
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, once a close friend of Orban, warned him over the weekend against any such move saying that if he “really blocks European sanctions at a key moment for the war, it’ll be absolutely clear that in this big game for the security and future of Europe, he is playing in Putin’s team, not in ours.”
But EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has just been speaking to the media, and she is hopeful of overcoming Hungary’s block this morning, with speculations that one compromise solution could include a separate statement on energy security.
“I expect a decision to rollover the sanctions we have,” Kallas said, Reuters reported.
While, as reported earlier, no politicians will be speaking at the main ceremony later today, Polish president Andrzej Duda has been briefing the world’s media in the last few minutes.
Poland takes care of those sites in order to preserve the memory, in order to keep it alive, so that people always remember.
And so that through … this memory, the world never again lets such dramatic human catastrophe happen, and to be more precise, a catastrophe of humanity, because representatives of one nation were able to cause such horrible, unimaginable pain and harm upon other nations, and especially upon the Jewish nation.
Russia not attending the event
While Germany, Austria, which was annexed by Germany in 1938, and Italy, whose dictator Benito Mussolini formed an alliance with Hitler, will all be represented at the ceremony, Russia, which had attended the annual event until 2022, will not.
In an interview with the Guardian earlier this month, Auschwitz museum director Piotr Cywiński pointed out that both Russians and Ukrainians were among the Red Army troops who liberated the camp, and that the war in neighbouring Ukraine is therefore “a war conducted by one liberator against another”.
He said there was no question of any Russian delegation attending in the current climate.
“It’s called the day of liberation, and I do not think that a country that does not understand the value of liberty has something to do at a ceremony dedicated to the liberation. It would be cynical to have them there.”
Our Europe correspondent Jon Henley is in Auschwitz today.
This is what he wrote in his report ahead of today’s event:
About 50 former inmates are expected to attend the ceremony at the complex in southern Poland where Nazi Germany murdered more than a million people, most of them Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war and gay people.
An audience including Britain’s King Charles III, King Felipe VI of Spain and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, as well as France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will hear their voices.
“This year, we are focusing on the survivors and their message,” said Paweł Sawicki, the Auschwitz museum spokesperson. “We all know that for the 90th anniversary, it will not be possible to have a large group. There will not be any speeches by politicians.”
Besides the survivors, only Piotr Cywiński, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum and memorial, and Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, representing key donors, are due to speak during the 90-minute ceremony.
The commemoration has added significance not just because most survivors are in their 90s and will not be able to tell their stories for much longer, but because today’s continuing wars, and increasingly polarised politics, make their testimony as vital as ever.
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Three Auschwitz survivors tell their stories
In a very moving piece published over night, three Auschwitz survivors, two of whom were interned there as teenagers, tell our Berlin correspondent Kate Connolly their stories.
This is what Albrecht “Albi” Weinberg, 99, told Kate:
Not a day goes by when I don’t think about my family. There are now Stolpersteine in front of our former family house, which are the closest thing I have to a gravestone where I can feel close to them.
I’m taken back to Auschwitz every day when I look in the mirror while washing my face and I see my tattoo.
Make sure to read the piece in full.
Morning commemoration at Auschwitz starting now
The Auschwitz anniversary is starting just now with a morning commemoration at the “wall of death” at the end of the block 11’s yard, attended by Auschwitz survivors and Polish president Andrzej Duda.
We are carrying the Auschwitz museum’s live stream at the top of this blog.
A moment to pause
Europe and the world will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz today, putting the increasingly chaotic global politics on pause for a brief moment to reflect on the darkest moments of our history.
But in a growingly polarised and aggressive world, the ceremony will also for many be a call for action and renewal of our collective memory. As the last survivors inevitably fade away, many fear that we risk forgetting the horrors of the Holocaust and the founding pledge on which Europe built the postwar order: never again.
A recent poll found that a stark proportion of young adults aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust: 46% in France, 15% in Romania, 14% in Austria and 12% in Germany.
Many are unable to name Auschwitz or any of the other concentration camps and ghettoes where the crimes of the Holocaust were committed.
And even among those who had, many encountered Holocaust denial or distortion, particularly online, reported by 47% in Poland, 38% in Germany, and 33% in the US.
The anniversary comes at a particularly hectic time, with some prominent voices daring to go further than ever in seemingly questioning the importance of reflecting on the past for our decisions today.
Over the weekend, close US president ally and billionaire Tesla and X owner Elon Musk told a rally organised by the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great grandparents.”
His comments, just days after he sparked controversy with his apparent use of a salute banned for its Nazi links in Germany, were perceived as echoing the party’s line that Germans should stop apologising for the past. The AfD’s co-founder Alexander Gauland once infamously said the Nazi period was like a “small bird dropping in over 1,000 years of successful German history.”
AfD is currently projected to come second in next month’s parliamentary election, only behind the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the latest sign of far-right parties making sweeping gains across Europe.
On a diplomatic level, the presence of over 50 national delegations led by royals and heads of states and governments, including British monarch Charles III, Spanish king Felipe VI, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and Italy’s Sergio Mattarella, will send a clear signal.
But by the decision of the Auschwitz museum, none of these leaders will speak at the event. Instead, we will only hear from the survivors and the custodians of their memory.
I will bring you the build up to the ceremony and then the key lines from the main event, which starts at 4pm CET.
Until then, we have lots to cover in EU politics with new comments from Trump on Denmark and Greenland, EU foreign affairs ministers meeting to discuss what to do with the new US administration and how best to help Ukraine, and the completely surprising news that Alexander Lukashenko ‘won’ in Belarus again, for the seventh consecutive time.
It’s Monday, 27 January 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good morning.
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