Italy's Meloni calls the Holocaust a 'tragedy unparalleled in history'
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the Holocaust as a “tragedy unparalleled in history,” and warned that “antisemitism was not defeated when the gates of Auschwitz were pulled down.”
Describing it as a "scourge," in a statement Meloni said antisemitism had “survived the Holocaust and has taken on different forms, spreading through new means and channels.”
She also acknowledged the complicity of the fascist regime in Italy, “with its disgraceful racial laws and involvement in rounding up and deporting people.”
Meloni’s statement appears to differ from comments she made in the past. As a young activist, she joined Italy’s “Youth Front,” a wing of the neofascist political party MSI (Italian Social Movement).
In 1996, as a 19-year-old activist, she said in an interview with a French TV network that she thought Italy's fascist leader Benito Mussolini "was a good politician, everything he did he did it for Italy."
Since becoming prime minister, she has said that those nostalgic for fascism “have no place” in Italian political life.
King Charles III gives a remembrance speech in Krakow
King Charles III will become the first British monarch to visit the Auschwitz death camp when he joins survivors and other dignitaries at the ceremony later today.
Ahead of his visit, the monarch traveled to the Jewish Community Centre in the Polish city of Krakow where he said that International Holocaust Remembrance Day was “both a somber and indeed a sacred moment” to remember those who were systematically murdered during the Holocaust.
“The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task. In so doing, we inform our present and shape our future,” he said.
Charles has visited the camp several times. While his mother Queen Elizabeth II did visit Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp in Germany, she did not travel to Auschwitz.
Lone train car dedicated to the memory of Hungarian Jews
A lone freight train car has been directly in front of the main gate of Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp since 2009.
Placed in the middle of the unloading ramp, the train car is dedicated to the memory of about 420,000 Jews from Hungary who were deported to Auschwitz from May to July 1944.
“These wagons connected ghettos and hiding places with the Place of Death,” Piotr M. A. Cywiński, the director of the Auschwitz Museum, said in 2009 when the car was unveiled.
Auschwitz survivors lay wreaths
Auschwitz survivors laid wreaths to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp by Soviet troops.
In a quiet and somber moment, the event commemorated more than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, who perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at the camp.
Four Auschwitz survivors to speak at the main commemoration
Four survivors of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp are scheduled to speak at the main commemoration in a heated tent built over the gate to the camp.
Marian Turski, 98, a journalist, historian and social activist who was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and survived the westward “death march” to Buchenwald in 1945, will open proceedings at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET).
Tova Friedman, the 86-year-old author of the book “The Daughter of Auschwitz,” who was transported with her mother to the camp at just 5 years old, will also address the crowd.
Leon Weintraub, 99, a physician who was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 after being separated from his family, and Janina Iwanska, a retired pharmacist who was expelled from her home during the Warsaw uprising and taken to the camp in a freight train in 1944, will also speak.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Poland
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Poland to participate in the ceremony, his spokesperson Sergiy Nykyforov said.
Zelenskyy also plans to hold bilateral meetings with European Council President Antonio Costa and French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit, Nykyforov added.
Earlier, Zelenskyy joined rabbis and diplomats to honor the memory of Holocaust victims at the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
“We must overcome the hatred that gives rise to abuse and murder. We must prevent forgetfulness. And it is everyone’s mission to do everything possible to prevent evil from winning,” he said in a statement.
Auschwitz survivors mark anniversary
Standing beside the so-called "Death Wall" inside Auschwitz, some remaining survivors and their relatives held candles during the ceremony to mark the camp's liberation.
This year is particularly poignant because only a handful of survivors have decided to return this year and it will likely to be one of the last events attended by those who suffered the horrors of the camp.
Piles of human hair tell harrowing story
Out of respect for the victims, we are forbidden from photographing what may be the most harrowing images here: piles of human hair.
Touring the Auschwitz I camp over the weekend, I entered a room. In the corner to the right of the doorway was a glass case with multiple braids of hair sitting on top of fabric. The textile was also made from human hair.
Then I turned and noticed there was a window the length of the long room; it was dark on the other side. I realized what I was looking at: an entire case filled with mounds of human hair, much much of it dark with some blonde strands mixed in.
That’s estimated to be the hair of roughly 40,000 people. It’s a haunting image I won’t forget.
European Commission remembers Holocaust victims
The European Commission, the E.U.'s executive arm, marked 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz in a post on X.
"Today, we remember all the victims murdered during the Holocaust," it posted, adding, "This memory must be passed to future generations."
The E.U. Parliament plans to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a solemn plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at noon local time (6 a.m. ET).
NBC News' Jesse Kirsch reports 80 years after Auschwitz's liberation
NBC News' Jesse Kirsch reports from Auschwitz 80 years after the largest Nazi extermination camp’s liberation. The team is speaking to survivors —eyewitnesses to genocide — on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.