Remembrance Day, what it is and why it is celebrated today 27 January

January 27, 1945 Soviet troops of the 60th Army of the “1st Ukrainian Front” led by Marshal Ivan Konev arrived first at the Polish city of Auschwitz (in German Auschwitz), discovering the nearby concentration camp and freeing the few survivors. The discovery of Auschwitz and the first testimonies of those who survived revealed it to the world for the first time the horror of the Nazi genocide.
This is why Remembrance Day to remember all the victims of the Holocaust is celebrated on January 27th. He was so designated by United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 of 1 November 2005 during the 42nd plenary meeting. The resolution was preceded by a special session held on 24 January 2005 during which the United Nations General Assembly celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
In Italy, Remembrance Day was established with law 211 of 20 July 2000 and is celebrated to remember the Shoah, the extermination of the Jewish people, the racial laws, the Italian persecution of Jewish citizens, the Italians deported to concentration camps, imprisonment, death, as well as those who, even in different camps and deployments, they opposed the extermination plan, and at the risk of their own lives they saved other lives and protected the persecuted (so states article 1 of the law).
Articles 1 and 2 of law 211 thus define the purposes and celebrations of Remembrance Day: “The Italian Republic recognizes 27 January, the date of the demolition of the gates of Auschwitz, “Remembrance Day”, in order to remember the Shoah (extermination of the Jewish people), the racial laws, the Italian persecution of Jewish citizens, the Italians who suffered deportation, imprisonment, death, as well as those who, even in different camps and alignments, opposed the extermination project, and at the risk of their lives they saved other lives and protected the persecuted.

On the occasion of the “Day of Remembrance” referred to in article 1, ceremonies, initiatives, meetings and joint moments of narration of facts and reflection are organised, particularly in schools of all levels, on what happened to the people. Jewish and to the Italian military and political deportees in the Nazi camps so as to preserve in the future of Italy the memory of a tragic and dark period of history in our country and in Europe, and so that similar events can never happen again”.
There were 15 million victims of the Holocaust (the figure emerged from the study ofHolocaust Memorial Museum di Washington) locked up and killed in Nazi extermination camps before and during the Second World War. Six million of these innocent victims belonged to the Jewish people: their genocide is called, precisely, Shoah.
The Holocaust and the Shoah were genocide with scientific methods, implemented by Nazi Germany until 27 January 1945. From that day on, the liberated head of Auschwitz became the symbolic place of discrimination and suffering of those who were interned only because they were Jews or gypsy or homosexual or even, simply, because it was a person with political ideas different from those of those in power.