Survivors and notables mark 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation

Director Steven Spielberg attends a ceremony unveiling the Pillars of Remembrance at the memorial site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2015.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

Survivors of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz arrive to the former camp in Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2015.

Ceremonies to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp took place with some 300 former Auschwitz prisoners taking part in the commemoration event.

Nazi Germany built the Auschwitz camp in 1940 as a place of incarceration for the Poles. After 1942, it became the largest site of extermination of the Jews from Europe. At Auschwitz, Nazis killed at least 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and prisoners of other ethnicities. On January 27, 1945 the camp was liberated by the Red Army soldiers.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

A cargo wagon is parked at the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau near Oswiecim, Poland, January 26, 2015.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

The site is now a museum to the Holocaust and its survivors.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

A member of an association of Auschwitz concentration camp survivors lays her hand at the execution wall at the former Auschwitz I concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2015.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

Auschwitz survivor Eugenivsz Dabrowski visits the execution wall on January 27, 2015 in Oswiecim, Poland.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

Auschwitz survivors visit the execution wall on January 27, 2015 in Oswiecim, Poland.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

In Krakow, Poland from left: 79-year-old Miriam Ziegler, 81-year-old Paula Lebovics, 85-year-old Gabor Hirsch and 80-year-old Eva Kor pose with the original image of them as children taken at Auschwitz at the time of its liberation.

USC Shoah Foundation brought together, for the first time, four of the survivors from the iconic image by Alexander Vorontsov of Auschwitz children. Auschwitz was among the most notorious of the extermination camps run by the Nazis to enslave and kill millions of Jews, political opponents, prisoners of war, homosexuals and Roma.

70th anniversary of Auschwitz libration

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony, marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz which was freed by the Red Army soldiers, at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre in Moscow, January 27, 2015. Other European leaders gathered in Poland at the site.