Auschwitz liberation marked by world leaders News
Auschwitz liberation marked by world leaders

[JURIST] World leaders and Holocaust survivors gathered in Poland Thursday to mark the 60 year anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp [background information]. The heads of state of both Israel and Germany will join those of Russia and other countries to remember the arrival of Soviet troops in 1945. Other world leaders attending include: US Vice President Dick Cheney, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski. Events to mark the anniversary began in Berlin, where the parliament held a special ceremony which included an address by a German-Jewish camp survivor, Arno Lustiger. The beginning of the Polish ceremony will be signaled by a train whistle at the Auschwitz-Birkenau site. The railway track brought hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths. BBC has more, and the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza in Krakow has a local coverage of the commemoration [in Polish]. The nearby Polish town of Oswiecim has posted a special English-language website commemorating its liberation and the liberation of Auschwitz. Polish state television provides coverage of the Auschwitz commemoration ceremomies [in Polish].