President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will take part in the commemoration of the 70th liberation anniversary by the Red Army at Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Around 300 former camp prisoners and delegations from almost 50 countries, 13 presidents, including France’s Francois Hollande and Germany’s Joachim Gauck, five prime ministers, six members of royal families will attend the commemoration ceremony, Ukrinform own correspondent in Poland reports.
Today’s commemoration began when Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, accompanied by 100 former camp prisoners laid the wreath of white and red carnations to the wall where thousands of executions were carried out by Nazis in 1941-1943.
The main ceremony will begin at 16:30 during with speeches given by Polish President Komorowski and three prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Representatives of various denominations will pray for the souls of the dead. President Poroshenko is expected to give an interview with a Polish television station during his visit.
As a background note, Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp operated from May 1940 to January 1945. During this period of time at least 1.1 million people were killed there. Most of the prisoners were Jews from various European countries as well as Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners and other nationals.
