Days Until International Holocaust Remembrance Day

About International Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 27 marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp by Soviet forces; the General Assembly voted in 2005 to mark the date annually of commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust.

The observance calls on member states to develop educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide, and is marked by memorial ceremonies internationally.

The UN resolution establishing the day also specifically rejected any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, a deliberate clause addressing ongoing Holocaust-denial rhetoric at the time of the 2005 designation.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is estimated to have been the site of over a million deaths during the Holocaust, the largest single death toll of any Nazi camp, making the anniversary of its liberation a particularly significant symbolic date.