Today marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi extermination camp which came to symbolize the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. A series of commemorative events will be held at the site in southern Poland today, with President Andrzej Duda presiding over the ceremonies.

According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, over 60 countries and international organizations will participate in today’s events, including two deputy heads of the European Commission and the Secretary General of the OSCE, along with representatives from the European Council, the Council of Europe, UNESCO, and the United Nations. National delegations from all over Europe will also be in attendance, joined by representatives from North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Over a million people, mainly Jews, as well as Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other “undesirable” nationalities or affiliations, were killed at Auschwitz. The camp was liberated by Red Army soliders on January 27, 1945, and the date was officially designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations in 2005.

The events will be streamed live online beginning at 3:30pm on the museum WEBSITE

Source: PAP

Holocaust survivor awarded Order of the White Eagle

According to the director of the Auschwitz Museum, the guests of honor at today’s Holocaust commemoration will not be heads of government, but the roughly 200 former concentration camp prisoners and Holocaust survivors who are scheduled to attend.

One such survivor, writer and journalist Zofia Stefania Posmysz-Piasecka, was awarded the Order of the White Eagle on Friday by President Andrzej Duda for her efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust “through her artistic and creative work.”

A survivor of the Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and Neustadt-Glewe concentration camps, Posmysz-Piasecka later wrote about her experiences in books such as “The Passenger”, „Holidays on the Adriatic”, and „The same doctor M”. “Pasażerka” was later made into a film by communist-era director Andrzej Munk and translated into several languages.

During Friday’s ceremony, the 96-year-old survivor wondered aloud how it could come about “Auschwitz, which initially seemed to be the end of my life, somehow started it.”

Source: PAP

Polish ski jumpers take the podium in Zakopane

Legendary Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch finished yesterday’s individual competition in Zakopane atop the podium as he celebrated his 35th World Cup victory.

He was joined on the podium by Austrian Stefan Kraft in second place, and fellow Pole Dawid Kubacki in third. Kubacki, who recently won the prestigious Four Hills tournament, was on the podium for a record ninth time in a row. Piotr Żyła also finished in the top ten, coming in eighth.

In the overall World Cup classifications Kubacki is currently in fourth place (824 points), followed by Stoch in sixth (574 points), and Żyła in thirteenth (354 points).

The next competition in the FIS World Cup series will take place February 1-2 in Sapporo, Japan.

Source: PAP, skijumping.pl

Fans worldwide mourn Kobe Bryant

The world is mourning the death of legendary American basketball player Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash yesterday.

The five-time NBA league winner and two-time Olympic champion played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 20 seasons (1996-2016) before retiring in 2016. He is currently listed as the fourth most successful player in NBA history.

Bryant was killed along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others when his private helicopter crashed near the city of Calabasas, California, just northwest of Los Angeles. Condolences are pouring in from fans and celebrities around the world, including former President Barack Obama and Lakers teammates Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who each praised Kobe for being “much more than an athlete.”

The Lakers have announced they will be retiring jersey numbers 8 and 24 in his honor. Bryant was 41 at the time of his death.

Source: PAP, BBC

Weather

Today will be mostly cloudy and overcast with a chance of rain in the afternoon and a light breeze from the southwest. Temperatures will average around 3 degrees Celsius, or 37 degrees Fahrenheit, with the perceived temperature near freezing due to the wind and high humidity. Atmospheric pressure will keep dropping as the day progresses, with tomorrow’s forecast featuring cloudy skies and a good chance of rain in the morning and again in the afternoon.

Elizabeth Peck