Seimas pays tribute to the victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration Camp and their memory

Press release, 14 January 2025 (News ● Photos ● Broadcasts and videos)

The Seimas, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp, the largest extermination centre of its kind operating in the Nazi-occupied Republic of Poland from 1940 to 1945, paid tribute to the victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration Camp and their memory. A Seimas resolution on the matter was adopted by 83 votes in favour, with 5 abstentions.

‘On 17–21 January, the Nazis carried out the so-called evacuation, or death march, as it was commonly known, thus moving 56 000 camp inmates deeper into the Third Reich. The camp was left with so-called shadow people. Those were the people who were permanently crippled by unimaginable physical and mental torture, who survived by a miracle, and who endured hunger, cold, disease, unbearable working conditions, relentless beatings, dog attacks, and shouting and cursing from their abusers, while some also became victims of criminal medical experiments,’ recalled Saulius Skvernelis, Speaker of the Seimas, as he introduced the resolution. According to the Speaker of the Seimas, it was a mass extermination camp where more than a million Jewish people and several hundred thousand others were killed and exterminated, and the liberation of this camp has taken on a certain symbolic significance that is being commemorated by the free and democratic world.

‘When we talk about crimes against humanity and logic and crimes committed by totalitarian regimes, it makes sense to recall and declare once again our state’s position and to once again express our solidarity and support for all the nations and states that remember this day,’ the Speaker of the Seimas stressed.

The adopted resolution of the Seimas condemns all forms of totalitarianism and its crimes, any collaboration with the Nazi and Communist ideological regimes during World War II, manifestations of anti-Semitism in Europe and the world, as well as statements by politicians that display racist and anti-Semitic tendencies.

The Seimas stressed the need to constantly remind the public that lack of civic awareness, indifference and discriminatory attitudes had created the conditions for the Holocaust to happen and that failure to learn the lessons of the past tragedy leads to the spread of modern anti-Semitism.

The Lithuanian Parliament reaffirmed the aim to ensure, at the European Union level, rigorous assessment and condemnation of the crimes of totalitarian regimes against the peoples of the world and expressed support for further research into and awareness of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes and the implementation of appropriate educational programmes.

The resolution also proposes to amend the Law on Memorial Days and proclaim the 23rd of September the National Memorial Day for the Holocaust of Lithuanian Jews and Their Resistance against the Nazis, as well as mark the 27th of January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Lithuania to commemorate those who resisted the Nazi regime and rescued its victims, thus fighting for human lives and freedom.

The world commemorates the 27th of January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day in 1945 marked the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the largest extermination site in Nazi Germany, where an estimated 1.1–1.5 million people were killed.

Rimas Rudaitis, Adviser, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5 209 6132, e-mail: [email protected]