An anniversary at Auschwitz is marred by disputes

THE SOVIET troops who in 1945 liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the biggest Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, had already witnessed unspeakable atrocities across eastern Europe. Yet what they found when they rescued the camp’s 7,000 surviving inmates still shocked them: ruined gas chambers, victims of grotesque medical experiments, rooms full of hair and books bound in human skin. “I’m surprised not all the people here have gone mad,” wrote the Soviet commandant. The camp, where 1.1m people were murdered—90% of them Jews, along with Roma and political or war prisoners—has become a universally recognised symbol of evil and of the global commitment to prevent genocide.

On January 27th the Auschwitz Memorial Museum is staging a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. A long roster of international officials will attend, including the presidents of Germany, Israel, Poland and Ukraine, the prime ministers of France and Hungary and the UN’s special adviser for preventing genocide. Yet Russia, which considers itself the heir to the Soviet Union’s wartime accomplishments, is sending only its ambassador to Poland. Few non-European countries will be represented. The gaps in the guest list testify to the modern political problems that muffle Auschwitz’s message of “never again”.