Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025: 80 Years on from the Liberation of Auschwitz

80 years ago, on 27 January 1945, the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army. Over a million people who the Nazis had declared "opponents of the regime" or "sub-human" were murdered there between 1940 and 1945. They included Jews, Roma and Sinti, political prisoners, homosexuals, so-called asocials and other persecuted groups. Only about 7,000 prisoners, many of them gravely ill, survived to see the camp be liberated. Many thousands more were still on death marches to other camps in the west at that time, during which countless prisoners perished.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember the victims and recall the stories of those who were murdered, or who survived and were able to tell of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. So that we never forget the Nazi era and its victims. So that history is not repeated.

The commemoration ceremony at Auschwitz

On 27 January 2025, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp will be commemorated at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The main commemorative event will start at 4 p.m. and will be held in a marquee erected around the tower at the entrance to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.

One of the symbols of remembrance will be a freight car placed directly in front of the gate. All Auschwitz survivors are invited to attend the commemoration ceremony. National delegations and delegations from institutions will also take part in the ceremony.

Austria will be represented by Federal President Alexander van der Bellen, in whose delegation the Managing Director of the National Fund, Hannah Lessing, will also participate.

The commemoration will be streamed live to offer the opportunity for worldwide shared remembrance and reflection on the significance of the events of the past. All institutions and organisations around the world are called upon to join the commemoration by setting up a space at their locations where the broadcast from the memorial can be watched together.

Renowned psychoanalyst and surviving eyewitness Erika Freeman to speak at the Parliament

At an event held to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the three National Council presidents have invited pupils to participate in a discussion at Parliament. After a reading by Austrian actor Maria Köstlinger, Danielle Spera will chat to the contemporary witness Erika Freeman, who will share some of her personal memories. The internationally renowned psychoanalyst Erika Freeman fled Austria from the Nazis as a child and is one of the last remaining voices of the generation of Holocaust survivors.

More information about the event (in German)

A chronology of the liberation

The following timeline shows the liberation of the concentration camps by the Allied troops in chronological order. The list represents a selection of concentration camps and is not exhaustive. The links provide further information on each camp.

Source: International Auschwitz Committee (accessed on 17.1.2025)

The voices of Auschwitz survivors

Many survivors of the Nazi regime who have entrusted their life stories to the National Fund make reference to Auschwitz in their recollections:

• Life stories featuring Auschwitz published in German
• Life stories featuring Auschwitz published in English

Volume 6 of the book series Erinnerungen. Life Stories of Victims of National Socialism ("Lives Remembered. Life Stories of Victims of National Socialism") is dedicated to the survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. In two volumes, 20 autobiographical testimonies by survivors from different victim groups provide a deep insight into everyday life in the camp, death and survival in Auschwitz. They also seek to build a bridge to the Austrian exhibition in Auschwitz, which reopened in 2021.

The two-volume publication also includes a historical glossary and guest contributions from Albert Lichtblau and Hannes Sulzenbacher, members of the exhibition's curatorial and research team, from Herta Neiß, a member of the board of the Austrian Camp Community Auschwitz and the International Auschwitz Committee, and from Claire Fritsch, head of the coordination office at the National Fund for the renewal of the Austrian exhibition.

Exhibition opening at the Jewish Museum in Lima, Peru

In cooperation with the Austrian Embassy in Lima, the exhibition ‘From Repression to Remembrance’ curated by the National Fund will be opened on 27 January 2025 at the Jewish Museum Peru during the official ceremony for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, which is organised by the Israeli Embassy and the United Nations System in Peru. The exhibition will be on display at the Museo Judío Perú – Centro Educacional Holocausto y Humanidades (San Isidro, Lima) until 7 February 2025.

More information about the exhibition opening in Lima (in German)