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'We will never forget'

Joanna ImpeyApril 18, 2013

January 27 marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, an international day of commemoration for the victims of the Nazi genocide that resulted in the death of six million people. DW looks back at this dark past.

https://p.dw.com/p/17RCq
A bunch of summer flowers lies next to the star of David in the memory of the victims of the Holocaust 70 years after, at the Jewish cemetery in Iasi, Romania
Image: picture alliance/dpa

January 27 was the date when in 1945, the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated by Soviet troops. Now it is a day of commemoration, when people around the world remember the victims of the Holocaust.

During their 12 years in power, between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to annihilate all of Europe's Jews. They spread their hatred through the use of propaganda and legislation, which systematically took away the rights of Jewish men, women and children. Millions were murdered, and millions of others were displaced and fled across the world to escape persecution. Hundreds of thousands of other minorities - Roma and Sinti, gays and lesbians, and the disabled - were also killed.

Today, the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling rapidly. But that makes this day of remembrance only more poignant. Click on the links below to find out more.

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