The liberation of Auschwitz: 80 years on
Reflect on 80 years since Auschwitz’s liberation. Explore its history, echoes in today’s world and lessons to shape a more just future.
Image: Public Domain
80 years ago, the gates of Auschwitz opened. Not to freedom but to an unfathomable truth. On 27th January 1945, Soviet soldiers marched into the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and discovered scenes that defied comprehension.
It soon became clear that like Bergen-Belsen where Anne Frank died, Auschwitz wasn’t just a concentration camp. It was an extermination centre. Between April 1940 and January 1945, more than one million men, women and children lost their lives here. And amidst the detritus of death, the survivors were skeletal figures with hollowed eyes and harrowing stories.
80 years later, the world is still wrestling with the unimaginable horrors of this dark chapter in history. Remembering what happened — and honouring those who survived — is important. But it’s not where our responsibility ends. We need to look beyond anniversaries like Holocaust Memorial Day and ask ourselves: what can we learn from the events that truly matters today? How can we take those lessons and use them to shape a kinder, more just world. One where such cruelty has no chance to take root again?
These questions aren’t just for historians. They’re for all of us.
The camp that became a symbol
More than one million people were murdered at Auschwitz, most of them Jews. Children were torn from parents. Families disappeared into the smoke rising from crematoria. Survivors recall the smell, the silence and the constant terror of selections that determined life or death with the flick of an SS officer’s wrist.
Today, around 245,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors are still with us, scattered across 90 countries. Each of them carries a piece of history. Their voices echo not only in their own words but in the museums that preserve their past, the books that tell their stories and the hearts of those who take the time to truly listen.
Echoes in the present
Auschwitz is a reminder of where unchecked hatred leads. It also forces us to look at the persistence of prejudice and intolerance in modern society. Antisemitism fuelled the Holocaust but the hostility towards Jews is by no means consigned to history.
It continues to resurface in graffiti on synagogues, in online conspiracies in chants on city streets and in other contexts. Holocaust denial is also a growing problem. Think of the students who sit in classrooms, learning history for the first time, only to stumble upon websites that call Auschwitz a hoax.
A narrative of dehumanisation
The echoes of Auschwitz go beyond antisemitism. The mechanisms of dehumanisation — propaganda, scapegoating and systemic violence — are alarmingly familiar. Refugees are framed as invaders. Minorities are blamed for economic woes. The language shifts, the targets change, but the methods remain chillingly recognisable.
Lessons carried forward
And yet, Auschwitz also teaches resilience. Survivors have turned their pain into profound lessons about humanity, morality and memory. Efforts to educate future generations have taken root globally. Schools in countries like Germany mandate Holocaust education, and sites like Auschwitz preserve the physical evidence of this atrocity for visitors to see firsthand.
Virtual reality now allows young people to walk through Auschwitz, guided by survivor testimonies. It’s a haunting but necessary step in bridging the gap between past and present.
A personal responsibility
And while international organisations like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court exist as safeguards against future genocides, their existence isn’t enough. Auschwitz reminds us that systems can fail when people look the other way.
So, remembering Auschwitz isn’t just about history. It’s about recognising the threads that connect then and now and taking proactive steps to stop history from repeating itself.
Honouring the victims of Auschwitz
How can we honour those who lost their lives at Auschwitz? By challenging intolerance in all its forms. Small acts like standing up to a coworker’s offhand racist comment, voting against policies that marginalise and supporting those who are vulnerable all help, and would undoubtedly make Holocaust heroes like Oskar Schindler and Nicholas Winton proud.
Auschwitz wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the ideology behind it. The same is true for resistance.
Preserving the weight of memory
The gates of Auschwitz still stand, their cruel motto — Arbeit macht frei ('Work sets you free') — a lie carved into iron. Tourists walk through, hushed, cameras in hand, struggling to reconcile the enormity of what happened with the quiet of the grounds today. Guides speak softly of what was, their voices steady but their eyes often distant.
80 years later, Auschwitz demands something of us: vigilance, empathy and a refusal to forget. As survivor Marian Turski once warned, 'Auschwitz did not fall from the sky.' It grew from words, policies, and silence.
The question is whether we’ll choose to carry its lessons forward. As the years pass and the survivors leave us, the responsibility becomes ours. Let it not be one we take lightly.
