70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz

Ceremonies are being held marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

Barbed wire fences surround detention buildings at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp

Survivors of the Holocaust are at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland for ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of its liberation.

 

Those who have gathered are some of the last people left alive to tell their story.

 

The Nazis built the Auschwitz camp in Poland in 1940 as a place of incarceration for Polish prisoners.

 

From 1942 it became the largest site of extermination for European Jews with Nazi Germany killing at least 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and prisoners of other ethnicities, including Germans.

 

SBS Europe corrospondent Brett Mason is in Poland for the anniversary and he spoke to Peggy Giakoumelos.