World pauses to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Holocaust survivors, politicians and regular people commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, gathering at somber events across Europe and beyond to reflect on Nazi Germany's killing of millions of people.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed across each year on Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the Nazi German death camps. The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2005 establishing the day as an annual commemoration.

“The attempt, carried out by Nazi Germany, to erase the Jews from the face of Europe encapsulates, in an emblematic way, all the evil that human beings are capable of committing when they allow themselves to be infected — out of superficiality, indifference, cowardice, or self-interest — by the virus of hatred, racism, and oppression,” Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in a gathering with survivors in Rome.

At Auschwitz, located in an area of southern Poland which was under German occupation during World War II, Polish President Karol Nawrocki joined survivors for a remembrance ceremony that ended with Jewish and Christian clergy reciting prayers.

Bernard Offen, a 96-year-old survivor told participants that in today's world he sees “signs I know too well.”

“I see hatred resurgent. I see violence beginning to be justified once again,” Offen said. "I see people who believe their anger is more valuable than another human life. I say this because I am an old man who has seen where indifference leads to. And I say this because I believe that — I truly believe — that we can choose differently.”

Nazi German forces killed some 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, most of them Jews, but also Poles, Roma and others. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945. In all, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust — in ghettos, concentration camps and shot at close range in the fields and forests of Eastern Europe.

In the heart of Berlin, candles burned at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs which honors the 6 million victims and stands as a powerful symbol of Germany's remorse.

Other countries are still struggling to come to terms with the complicity of their ancestors. Mattarella condemned the complicity of ordinary Italians in the fascist-era racial laws, which persecuted Italy’s Jewish community, and deportation of its Jews.

As in recent years, Russia representatives were not invited to the observances at Auschwitz due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pavel Jelinek, a 90-year-old survivor from the city of Liberec — a Czech city with a prewar Jewish population of 1,350 — told those gathered in the upper house of the Czech Parliament that he was now the last living of the 37 Jews who returned to the city after the war.

There are an estimated 196,600 Jewish Holocaust survivors still alive globally, down from 220,000 a year ago, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Their median age is 87, and nearly all — some 97% — are “child survivors” who were born 1928 and later, the group said.

Though the world's community of survivors is shrinking, some are still telling their stories for the first time after all these years.

In Britain, King Charles and Queen Camilla held a reception for survivors. A Holocaust survivor also addressed the British Cabinet in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as a first. Government members wiped away tears as 95-year-old Mala Tribich described how Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 destroyed her childhood.

She recalled being forced into hard labor at the age of 12 as the first Nazi ghetto was established in her hometown of Piotrkow Trybunalski, and spoke of the hunger, disease and suffering there. The Nazis killed her mother, father and sister. She was sent to Ravensbrück and then to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated by the British Army in April 1945.

She urged the Cabinet members to fight antisemitism — and to remember.

“Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left,” she told them. “That is why I ask you today not just to listen, but to become my witness.”

Many leaders also reflected on the upheaval in today’s world.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, warned about rising antisemitism and new threats. She noted that AI-generated content is now being used "to blur the line between fact and fiction, distort historical truth, and undermine our collective memory.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country has been under attack from Russia for four years, said that just as the world united to defeat the Nazis in 1945, it “must act the same way now."

“Whenever hatred and war threaten nations, unity that saves lives is needed,” Zelenskyy said.

Associated Press writers Karel Janicek in Prague, Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv, Danica Kirka in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla, left, light candles during a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, in London, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (Aaron Chown/Pool Photo via AP)

People attend a ceremony marking the 81th anniversary of the camp's liberation in the Auschwitz Nazi death camp museum in Oswiecim, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)

Names inscribed on the Victims' Wall are pictured during a memorial service in the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Tamas Purger/MTI via AP)

From left, Hungarian Minister heading the Prime Minister's Office Gergely Gulyas, Israel's ambassador to Hungary Maya Kadosh, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (Mazsihisz) Andor Grosz and Hungarian Hasidic Jewish religious leader and head of the Hungarian Chabad-Lubavitch movement rabbi Baruch Oberlander stand at the Victims' Wall during a memorial service in the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, January 27, 2026, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Tamas Purger/MTI via AP)

White roses placed on a concrete slab of the Holocaust memorial to mark the International Holocaust Memorial Day in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

People leave the building after a ceremony marking the 81th anniversary of the camp's liberation in the Auschwitz Nazi death camp museum in Oswiecim, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)

Holocaust survivior Tatiana Bucci, 88, from Italy, right, addresses the plenary during a session to mark the International Holocaust Memorial Day at the European Parliament in Brussels, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

White roses placed on a concrete slab of the Holocaust memorial to mark the International Holocaust Memorial Day in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer sits with Mala Tribich, a survivor of the Holocaust as they address a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)

Holocaust survivors lay flowers at the death wall in the Auschwitz Nazi death camp museum during a ceremony marking the 81th anniversary of the camp's liberation in Oswiecim, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)

Holocaust survivor Stanislaw Zalewski walks in the Auschwitz Nazi death camp museum during a ceremony marking the 81th anniversary of the camp's liberation in Oswiecim, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)

A man walks through the snow covered Holocaust memorial on the International Holocaust Memorial Day in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A Jewish man attends a ceremony commemorating the extermination of the Jewish people and their deportation to Nazi concentration camps on Holocaust Remembrance Day, at the Monumental Cemetery, in Turin, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP)

Holocaust survivor Stanislaw Zalewski walks along a wall in the Auschwitz Nazi death camp museum during a ceremony marking the 81th anniversary of the camp's liberation in Oswiecim, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)

Candles placed in front of a concrete slab of the Holocaust memorial to mark the International Holocaust Memorial Day in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 6,159 people while many others still are feared dead, activists said Tuesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East to lead any American military response to the crisis. Iran's currency, the rial, meanwhile fell to a record low of 1.5 million to $1.

The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and guided missile destroyers accompanying it provide the U.S. the ability to strike Iran, particularly as Gulf Arab states have signaled they want to stay out of any attack despite hosting American military personnel.

Two Iranian-backed militias in the Mideast have signaled their willingness to launch new attacks, likely trying to back Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of peaceful protesters or Tehran launching mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to drag the entire Mideast into a war, though its air defenses and military are still reeling after the June war launched by Israel against the country. But the pressure on its economy may spark new unrest as everyday goods slowly go out of reach of its people — particularly if Trump chooses to attack.

Ambrey, a private security firm, issued a notice Tuesday saying it assessed that the U.S. “has positioned sufficient military capability to conduct kinetic operations against Iran while maintaining the ability to defend itself and regional allies from reciprocal action.”

“Supporting or avenging Iranian protesters in punitive strikes is assessed as insufficient justification for sustained military conflict,” Ambrey wrote. “However, alternative objectives, such as the degradation of Iranian military capabilities, may increase the likelihood of limited U.S. intervention.”

Tuesday's new figures came from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in multiple rounds of unrest in Iran. The group verifies each death with a network of activists on the ground in Iran.

It said the 6,159 dead included at least 5,804 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 92 children and 49 civilians who weren't demonstrating. The crackdown has seen over 42,200 arrests, it added.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll given authorities cutting off the internet and disrupting calls into the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s government has put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest there in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests in Iran began on Dec. 28, sparked by the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They were met by a violent crackdown by Iran’s theocracy, the scale of which is only starting to become clear as the country has faced more than two weeks of internet blackout — the most comprehensive in its history.

Iran’s U.N. ambassador told a U.N. Security Council meeting late Monday that Trump’s repeated threats to use military force against the country “are neither ambiguous nor misinterpreted.” Amir Saeid Iravani also repeated allegations that the U.S. leader incited violence by “armed terrorist groups” supported by the United States and Israel, but gave no evidence to support his claims.

Iranian state media has tried to accuse forces abroad for the protests as the theocracy remains broadly unable to address the country's ailing economy, which is still squeezed by international sanctions, particularly over its nuclear program.

On Tuesday, exchange shops offered the record-low rial-to-dollar rate in Tehran. Traders declined to speak publicly on the matter, with several responding angrily to the situation.

Already, Iran has vastly limited its subsidized currency rates to cut down on corruption. It also has offered the equivalent of $7 a month to most people in the country to cover rising costs. However, Iran's people have seen the rial fall from a rate of 32,000 to $1 just a decade ago — which has devoured the value of their savings.

Iran projected its power across the Mideast through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of proxy militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and other places. It was also seen as a defensive buffer, intended to keep conflict away from Iranian borders. But it has collapsed after Israel targeted Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others during the Gaza war. Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 overthrew Syria’s Bashar Assad after a yearslong, bloody war in which Iran backed his rule.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have repeatedly warned they could resume fire if needed on shipping in the Red Sea, releasing old footage of a previous attack Monday. Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi, the leader of Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah militia, warned "the enemies that the war on the (Islamic) Republic will not be a picnic; rather, you will taste the bitterest forms of death, and nothing will remain of you in our region.”

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s staunchest allies, refused to say how it planned to react in the case of a possible attack.

“During the past two months, several parties have asked me a clear and frank question: If Israel and America go to war against Iran, will Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said in a video address.

He said the group is preparing for “possible aggression and is determined to defend” against it. But as to how it would act, he said, “these details will be determined by the battle and we will determine them according to the interests that are present.”

Associated Press writers Edith Lederer at the United Nations and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

People walk at Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk at Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man carries his shopping at Tajrish Sq. in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE- A currency exchange bureau worker counts U.S. dollars at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

A vendor waits for customers at Tajrish Sq. in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A Hezbollah supporter waves an Iranian flag during a rally to show their solidarity with the Iranian government, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows sailors preparing a Boeing EA-18G Growler on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 21, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)

Vehicles drive past portrait of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk in front a billboard with graphic showing a U.S aircraft carrier with damaged fighter jets on its deck, and sign reading in Farsi and English: "If you sow the wind, you'll reap whirlwind," at the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) square, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)