‘Never Forget’: Europe Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

See also: 

Poland's Holocaust Commemorations Marred by Politics

Forgetting Auschwitz: The Chilling Return of Anti-Semitism

Croatia Commemorates Holocaust amid Divisions over WWII History

The Auschwitz-Birkenau complex was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945 and become a symbol of Nazi Germany's systematic murder of some six million Jews — around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.

It is estimated that 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz. Those who died there included 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and up to 15,000 other Europeans.

Prisoners who were not gassed in chambers died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, beatings or were killed during medical experiments.

The world commemorates the camp's liberation annually on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Janaury 27.

Here are pictures from remembrance events at the site of the former extermination camp in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz in German) and from ceremonies held elsewhere in Europe, as well as archive photos from Auschwitz.

Former prisoners, Polish President Andrzej Duda (centre-right) and Director of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau Piotr Cywinski (centre-left) arrive at the Death Gate of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp during ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi-German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Oswiecim, Poland, 27 January 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDRZEJ GRYGIEL

Former prisoners attend a wreath-laying ceremony in front of the Death Wall. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDRZEJ GRYGIEL POLAND OUT

Former prisoners Igor Malickij (left) and...