The Nazi death camp where more than one million people perished was liberated on 27 January 1945. As one survivor, now aged 90, prepares to commemorate the date, she explains why the Holocaust must never be forgotten … especially in an age of rising antisemitism and nationalism....

Now aged 90, Renee will soon again stand at the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Along with up to 200 other Holocaust survivors and scores of heads of state, political leaders and dignitaries, she will mark the 75th anniversary on 27 January of the camp’s liberation by Russian soldiers. A ceremony will include speeches by survivors, and by Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, and Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress. Britain will be represented by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Among other events to mark the anniversary and Holocaust Memorial Day is a global forum on Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism, at Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial in Jerusalem, on 23 January. It will be attended by dozens of world leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, the French president, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, Mike Pence, the US vice-president, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president. The Polish president pulled out last week, claiming he had been denied the opportunity to make a speech.
At least 1.1 million people – mostly Jews – were murdered at Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi death camps. In the weeks before Red Army troops arrived on 27 January 1945, thousands of prisoners were shot, tens of thousands more forced on to death marches, and most of the gas chambers destroyed. About 7,000 prisoners remained.