Alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal President Joachim Gauck, the representatives of all constitutional organs of the Federal Republic of Germany were present. After a few words of welcome, Bundestag President Norbert Lammert gave the floor to the writer and lecturer Ruth Klüger.

Ordeal in concentration camps

71 years after the concentration camp in Auschwitz was liberated she reported on her ordeal as a forced labourer in various concentration camps. The 84-year-old survivor was deported at the age of twelve with her mother to the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. One year later she arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau, from where she was subsequently deported again to the Christianstadt work camp.

27 January is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism. It was established in 1996 in a proclamation issued by Federal President Roman Herzog. On 27 January 1945 Soviet troops liberated the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where some 1.1 million people had been murdered. A total of about six million Jews died in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. Every year since 1996 a remembrance ceremony has been held in the German Bundestag to pay tribute to the victims of National Socialism.

Forced labour under the National Socialists

A Bundestag youth encounter scheme is also exploring the issue of forced labour in National Socialist Germany and occupied Europe. 80 young people, who are engaging with the history of National Socialism in Germany, Poland and France, have examined the many different aspects of this crime. The closing point and highlight of the youth encounter for the young people was the opportunity to attend the remembrance ceremony for the victims of National Socialism in the German Bundestag.