Lali Sokolov – better known as the Tattooist of Auschwitz, who was immortalised in the 2018 book that has sold more than 13 million copies in 40 languages – has done more to keep the horrors of the Second World War alive than most in recent memory.
World leaders rubbed shoulders with 56 survivors of Hitler's death camp as they marked 80 years since its liberation.
Ruth Cohen, a 94-year-old American Holocaust survivor, returned to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland for the first time. She recalled seeing family members before they were separated for the last time at the camp.
Auschwitz survivors have warned of the rising antisemitism and hatred in the modern world as they gathered with world leaders and European royalty on the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation.
That creates risks: the Holocaust didn’t begin with mass murder. The dehumanization of Jews progressed gradually from public exclusion to eventual internment to finally extermination. Millions of regular Germans—and Europeans more broadly—facilitated or silently accepted these actions.
During World War II, men, women and children were transported from across Europe to Auschwitz-Birkenau, horrendous journeys in which they were packed into cramped cattle cars.
World leaders and a dwindling group of survivors joined in a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp by the Red Army.
It doesn’t do any good for your heart, for your mind, for anything,” said Holocaust survivor Jona Laks, 94, about her return to Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
In all, the Nazi regime murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe’s Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Auschwitz survivors warned of the dangers of rising antisemitism on Monday, as they marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops in one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced its horrors.
The Daily Express and the Daily Mirror both feature a picture of an elderly Holocaust survivor who returned to Auschwitz for Monday's ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of its liberation. The Express captions the image "returning to hell", while the Mirror's headline reads "it is our duty to remember".