Commemoration of the victims of National Socialism
Mayor Barbara Ludwig invites citizens to take part in the commemorative event: 27 January, wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial in the Park of the Victims of Fascism - panel discussion at Agricola-Gymnasium
On the occasion of the nationwide day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism, an event to commemorate and remember will take place in Chemnitz on Sunday, 27 January. Mayor Barbara Ludwig invites the citizens of the city to attend the commemorative event: The commemoration will begin with a wreath-laying ceremony at 10 a.m. at the memorial in the Park of the Victims of Fascism. At 10.30 a.m., a public panel discussion will be held in the auditorium of the Georgius Agricola Gymnasium. Participants in the panel discussion, which will be moderated by two pupils from the grammar school, will be Justin Sonder, survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and Siegmund Rotstein, honorary chairman of the Jewish community of Chemnitz and survivor of the Theresienstadt ghetto, as well as Lord Mayor Barbara Ludwig and Thiemo Kirmse, chairman of Klinke e.V., Querbeet.
27 January 2013 marks the 68th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army. The victims of National Socialist tyranny have been commemorated in Chemnitz since 1945. The anniversary of the liberation of the extermination camp became a German day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism in 1996 on the initiative of the then Federal President Roman Herzog. In 2005, the United Nations declared 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The memorial in the Park of the Victims of Fascism in Chemnitz was created by the sculptor Hanns Diettrich (1905-1983).