Germany commemorates liberation of two concentration camps

Officials in Germany are solemnly commemorating the liberation of two Nazi concentration camps 70 years ago in the closing days of World War II.

Poland’s first lady, Anna Komorowska, joins in remembrance activities Sunday at the site of the Ravensbrueck women’s camp in northern Germany. Many of the prisoners came from Poland.

Ceremonies also are taking place at the former Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum says 30,000 to 50,000 people died at Sachsenhausen, where inmates included Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and opponents of the Nazis. More than 130,000 women were imprisoned in Ravensbrueck; 20,000 to 30,000 died there.

Sachsenhausen was liberated on April 22, 1945, Ravensbrueck on April 30. Beforehand, Nazi officials forced thousands from the camps into death marches that killed many inmates.

A camp survivor throws a rose into the lake during ceremonies at the former Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrueck in Fuerstenberg, northeastern Germany, Sunday, April 19, 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by the Red Army on April 30, 1945. (photo credit: AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)

— AP