Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Elke Büdenbender traveled to the Republic of Poland on 27 January to attend the remembrance ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

In the morning, the Federal President and Elke Büdenbender held talks with survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp at Schloss Bellevue, after which they all flew together to Poland.

At the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Federal President Steinmeier visited the main camp Auschwitz I and layed a wreath at the death wall. Together with Polish President Andrzej Duda, President of the State of Israel Reuven Rivlin and other heads of state and government, the Federal President then attended the official commemorative event marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp.

This trip was part of a series of commemorative events that the Federal President attended together with Israeli President Rivlin and other heads of state and government to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp 75 years ago. On 22 and 23 January, the Federal President had travelled to Jerusalem at the invitation of President Rivlin to give a speech during the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

From Auschwitz, Federal President Steinmeier and President Rivlin traveled together to Berlin, where on 29 January they delivered the keynote speeches at the main event at the German Bundestag to commemorate the victims of National Socialism.

Overview of the programme

• Schloss Bellevue
  Talks with Holocaust survivors
• Flight to Kraków
• Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau
  Visit by the Federal President to the memorial and museum and tour of former main camp I
  Wreath-laying ceremony at the death wall

• Memorial and Museum Auschwitz II Birkenau
  Welcome by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda

  Attendance of the commemorative event marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp

  Representatives of the survivors and the Heads of State proceed to the International Monument for the victims of the concentration camp and place memorial candles at the monument together

• Joint flight with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to Berlin