Eighty years ago, on 27 January 1945, the concentration and extermination camp known as Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. Over a million people declared by the Nazis as “opponents of the regime” or “sub-human” were murdered there between 1940 and 1945. They included Jews, Roma and Sinti, political prisoners, homosexuals and other persecuted groups. Only about 7,000 prisoners, many of them gravely ill, survived to see the camp be liberated. This year the observance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to commemorate the event of 27 January assumes a special significance with the rise of Neo-Nazi and Far-Right forces in different parts of the world, including Europe and the US. More so after the alarming signal that US President Donald Trump’s key man, Elon Musk, gave on the day of his swearing-in ceremony 20 January, with his unabashed display of two Nazi salutes. The world is set to listen to about 50 of the Holocaust survivors taking part in the main event being held in a marquee erected around the tower at the entrance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in then-German-occupied Poland. Some of them had remained silent for so many years as the trauma robbed them of their self-confidence and would be opening their mouths for the first time since the dehumanising treatment meted out to them. Only a decade ago, 300 survivors gathered at Auschwitz to commemorate the Nazi death camp’s liberation. At the 80th anniversary, the median age of Holocaust survivors is estimated at 86. At 97, Esther Senot is still keeping the promise she made to her dying sister Fanny, whose last wish was that she “tell what happened to us … so that we are not forgotten by history.”
National and institutions’ delegations are also taking part in the ceremony. Austria is represented by Federal President Alexander van der Bellen. The decision to live-stream the commemoration is very apt as it gives an opportunity for worldwide shared remembrance and reflection on the significance of the events of the past.
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The Auschwitz museum’s decision to ban speeches by politicians this year appears to be a response to the recent developments in Europe and the Middle East. The museum’s mission rises above politics, yet it cannot remain aloof from global affairs. Vladimir Putin attended the annual event in the past, but this time around there will be no Russian presence. Earlier this month, Poland’s deputy foreign minister suggested that authorities would be obliged to arrest the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to the ceremony because the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, however, iterated that Netanyahu would be able to attend the ceremony safely, even though Israel’s delegation is not expected to include him.
But the museum’s decision is reassuring for the survivors themselves and all others who mourn the parents and children, friends and lovers obliterated by the Nazis. Though their numbers are fast dwindling, their testimony is needed now far more than ever. The demand – “Never again” – was first made in 1945 by the survivors. But genocides keep happening in one form or the other throughout the world and throughout human history. Incidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the slaughter of Bosnian Moslems in Srebrenica.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has drawn the attention of the world to the fact that anti-Semitism has increased globally since the 7 October Hamas attacks and the war in Gaza. On the other hand, the Far-Right is on the rise across Europe including in Germany.
Hitler was a politician backed by German business magnets of his time for promoting their business interests using political power. But, tycoons such as Musk and Trump are now in the forefront of international politics. Money and political power seem to be concentrating in the same hands in many countries across the globe. This is ominous.
