Auschwitz survivors mark camp’s liberation

The yearly commemoration honors the day the advancing Soviet army liberated the camp in 1945. The anniversary has been established as an annual Holocaust remembrance day by the United Nations.

The Jan. 27 commemorations at Auschwitz included a wreath-laying ceremony and prayers at the foot of the former camp’s main memorial, which stands between the ruins of two crematoria.

Meanwhile, in a speech to parliament, German President Horst Koehler said that “responsibility for the Shoah is part of the German identity.”

Germany’s main Jewish group, however, boycotted the ceremony, saying they were snubbed by not being officially greeted by the speakers at the event.

A ceremony also was planned at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside Berlin. — ap