Auschwitz survivors warned Monday of the rising antisemitism and hatred which they are witnessing in the modern world as they gathered with world leaders and European royalty on the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation.
Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II.
Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination in the Nazi racial ideology. Jewish Federation of Central Alabama Director, Philip Ensler says it's both a day of reflection and motivation.
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.
