Population minister to attend Auschwitz liberation anniversary in Poland

Minister of Population Affairs Riina Solman (Isamaa).
Minister of Population Affairs Riina Solman (Isamaa). Source: Siim Lõvi/ERR

Estonia's Population Minister Riina Solman will attend the ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland on Monday.

Spokespeople for the Interior Ministry quoted Solman as saying: "The history of Jews is wrought with painful wounds, the most tragic of which is the Holocaust. As a human being and minister, I believe that we must do our utmost to remember and commemorate what happened. Only by doing it can we stand firmly against the repetition of horrifying events in history,"

The ceremony commemorating 75 years of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp and the memory of victims of the Holocaust will take place in Oswiecim, Poland. High-level representatives from 50 countries are expected to attend.

The Estonian ambassador to Poland, Martin Roger, will also attend the ceremony.

Neither President Kersti Kaljulaid nor Prime Minister Jüri Ratas attended a Holocaust remembrance event in Isreal on Thursday.

Kaljulaid was in Antarctica with an expedition celebrating the bicentennial of the discovery of the continent, and Ratas was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been marked in Estonia since 2002. The ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year will start at the Rahumae Jewish Cemetery in Tallinn at 1 p.m.



Editor: Helen Wright

