International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an international memorial day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.
It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jews, 1 million Roma, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during the second world war. On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated by Soviet troops.
On July 2, 1947 Poland established a state memorial to the victims of Nazism on the site of the camp. An exhibition displays prisoner photographs, hair, suitcases and shoes belonging to the murdered prisoners. Canisters of Zyklon B pellets and other objects related to the murders are also on display.
It is considered a place of `dark tourism` which reflects visiting a place associated with death and tragedy for the purposes of education, remembrance and commemoration
I visited the site in Poland with a group of History school students in 2012. I include these photographs as a commemoration to the victims. I do not include any captions in respect to those who were murdered but let the pictures speak for themselves.
UNESCO added the camp to its list of World Heritage Sites in 1979. The site now attracts over 1.5 million visitors a year.
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