27 JANUARY 2005

New Zealand marks Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Remembrance services will be held today in Auckland and Wellington to remember the millions of Jews and others that perished in the Holocaust.

The RSA joins in remembering the many millions who suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

The following links are provided to ensure that we never forget:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
www.ushmm.org

BBC Docomentary Auschwitz: The Nazis & the 'Final Solution'
www.bbc.co.uk

PBS Docomentary Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
www.pbs.org/auschwitz/

27 January 1945:
Liberation of Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans. A complex of camps, Auschwitz included a concentration, extermination, and forced-labor camp. It was located 37 miles west of Krakow (Cracow), near the prewar German-Polish border.

In mid-January 1945, as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz camp complex, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its satellite camps. Nearly 60,000 prisoners were forced to march west from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands had been killed in the camps in the days before these death marches began. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to march to the city of Wodzislaw in the western part of Upper Silesia. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue. Prisoners also suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure on these marches. More than 15,000 died during the death marches from Auschwitz.

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. It is estimated that at minimum 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at least 1.1 million were murdered.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
www.ushmm.org