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The liberation of Auschwitz was one of the most significant moments in the history of the Holocaust. Located in Poland, Auschwitz was the largest extermination and concentration camp established by the Nazi regime, where more than one million people, mostly Jewish, were murdered.
As Soviet forces advanced on the Eastern Front of World War II, the Nazis began evacuating Auschwitz prisoners, forcibly marching them to other concentration camps. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz and liberated the survivors, many in extremely precarious conditions.
The scenes of desolation, lifeless bodies and malnourished survivors revealed the magnitude of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis and became a testament to the failure of the international community to stop this tragedy.
Since then, January 27 has been commemorated each year as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to remember the victims and to educate about the dangers of intolerance, discrimination and indifference. The world pledged not to allow the horrors of the Holocaust to be repeated. Yet today they are being repeated in Gaza.
Since 1948, the State of Israel, a colonial enclave of Western imperialism in the Middle East, has displaced millions of Palestinians from their land and established a system of apartheid. More recently, since October 2023, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to intense bombardment and war crimes, resulting in tens of thousands of people killed, mainly children.
The memory of Auschwitz continues to be dishonored with each passing day.
Click here to download the printable version of the calendar and hang it on your wall.
Text: Andreína Chávez. Illustration: Luis Cario.