January 26, 2005

President Traian Basescu will take part at the ceremonies commemorating 60 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz- Birkenau concentration camp

On Thursday, Romanian President Traian Basescu will take part at the ceremonies commemorating 60 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz- Birkenau concentration camp.

The commemoration will start at the Juliusz Slowacki Theater in Krakow , where the participants are going to watch a series of documentaries about the tragedy of Jewish prisoners from the Auschwitz .
The presidents of Poland , Russian Federation , and Israel will deliver speeches, joined by the president of the World Jewish Congress and the Nobel Prize winner, Ellie Wiesel , a Jew of Romanian origin. Mr. Wiesel is also the president of the International Commission for studying the Holocaust in Romania .
The participants will then arrive at the Auschwitz- Birkenau Museum , where the second part of the commemoration will take place at the Memory of the Nations Monument .

The whistle of a train which comes into the concentration camp will be the signal for the start of the ceremony.
At this ceremony, the representatives of the Auschwitz survivor associations will deliver speeches, followed by the presidents of Poland , Russian Federation and Israel . Pope John Paul the Second's message will also be read.
At the end, a religious service will be performed for the victims of Auschwitz and the participants are going to light candles at the monument.
At the end of the ceremonies, there will be a song played at the shofar , a traditional Jewish instrument.