More than 200 former prisoners and Holocaust survivors were expected to attend memorial ceremonies in southern Poland on Monday, alongside leaders from dozens of countries, to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The presidents of Germany, Israel and Ukraine and the prime ministers of France, Sweden and Hungary were among those expected to take part.
The list of guests also included King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin was slated to represent the United States during the ceremonies, while Russia was expected to be represented by its ambassador to Warsaw, Sergey Andreyev.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has been announced as the key speaker and host of the event at the site of the former Auschwitz camp.
The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ron Lauder, was also scheduled to speak at the event.
Lauder, who chairs the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation, earlier skipped the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem on January 23.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp operated in German-occupied southern Poland between May 1940 and January 1945.
It was the largest of the German Nazi concentration and death camps.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs and people of many other nationalities, perished at the camp before it was liberated by Soviet soldiers on January 27, 1945.
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Source: IAR, PAP