Tomorrow, Wednesday 20 May, the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, will visit the Auschwitz Memorial for the first time. He will also visit the Oswiecim/Auschwitz International Youth Meeting Centre, located near the memorial, which was established with funding from the German federal states and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

Speaking in Munich on the occasion of the Minister-President’s visit to Auschwitz, Dr Eva Umlauf, an Auschwitz survivor and President of the International Auschwitz Committee, said:

‘The survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps regard the visit to Auschwitz by the Minister-President of Germany’s largest federal state as a political and human gesture of solidarity, particularly at this time. We are keeping a very close watch on political developments in Germany at the moment, and we now know that far-right politicians in Germany are hostile to our memories and the culture of remembrance. It saddens and appals us to see the level of support these preachers of hatred appear to be garnering in opinion polls, and how their plans and election manifestos envisage tearing apart democracy in Germany.’

And during his visit to the Auschwitz Memorial, the Committee’s Executive Vice-President, Christoph Heubner, added:

‘Despite the rhetoric of the far right in Germany, the world’s gaze will always be drawn to Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald. Germany is indebted to itself, to the world and the survivors of the Holocaust to remember what happened in Auschwitz and why it happened, so that we in Europe can continue to live in a world of diversity and democracy. That is why, now more than ever, democrats in Germany and Europe must stand together to combat far-right and anti-Semitic hatred. We hope that this will become clear during Minister-President Wüst’s visit to Auschwitz.’