Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will attend the 75th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on Jan. 27.
The first area in the camp complex to be liberated was Auschwitz III, the IG Farben camp at Monowitz, after a soldier from the 100th Infantry Division of the Red Army entered the camp around 9 a.m. on Jan. 27, 1945.
The 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front, also part of the Red Army, arrived in Auschwitz I and II around 3 p.m. where they found 7,000 prisoners alive in the three main camps, 500 in the other sub-camps, and over 600 corpses.
On Thursday, Jan. 23, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum are hosting the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem.
The event will be attended by 46 world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Prince Charles, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Hungary will be represented by President János Áder. Polish President Andrzej Duda, also invited to the Jerusalem events, refused to attend because he was not given the opportunity to speak at the commemoration. He stated that he will not be able to address any historical inaccuracies about Poland perpetuated by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the Second World War.
Russia and Poland are currently in a war of words over the two countries’ historical roles during World War ll and the Holocaust, with Poland accusing Russia of “rewriting history”.
Title image: Main entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp. (Wikimedia Commons)
