On the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, survivors warn of persistent antisemitism. Commemorations took place in Poland and Germany, focusing on the voices of survivors. Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman will speak in the Bundestag and uses TikTok to reach young people.
On January 27, 2026, the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp marks its 81st anniversary. Soviet troops freed the survivors in 1945, after the deaths of around 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, between 1940 and 1945. The Auschwitz memorial site deliberately avoided speeches by politicians this year to focus on former prisoners, as director Piotr Cywinski emphasized. Poland's President Karol Nawrocki attended the ceremony. The 96-year-old survivor Bernard Offen warned of rising societal hate: "There are currently many signs that are all too familiar to me."
In Germany, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), EU Interior Commissioner Magnus Brunner, and Central Council President Josef Schuster laid a wreath at the Berlin Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Commemorations occurred in several state parliaments. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU) opened the exhibition "Believing in a Future. Jewish Biographies in the Parliamentary Founding Generation after 1945." She stated: "Antisemitism did not end in 1945. And it has not ended to this day." Israel's Ambassador Ron Prosor called for more decisive action against antisemitism: "On January 27 this year, it must be clear that words must be followed by deeds." A YouGov poll reveals that only 49 percent of respondents consider the remembrance day important, with 35 percent viewing it as minor.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged: "It is a matter of stance and action." On Wednesday, 87-year-old survivor Tova Friedman, who arrived in Auschwitz at age five, will speak in the Bundestag. With her grandson, she runs a TikTok channel to keep the memory alive. The remembrance day's motto "Bridging Generations" highlights the need to engage young people through creative formats like social media, without diminishing the uniqueness of the Holocaust.
