Politicians won’t be allowed to make speeches at ceremony for 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation

Politicians and world leaders will not make speeches at the main commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp later this month, says the director of the site.

“There will be no political speeches at all,” Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum, tells the Guardian.

“We want to focus on the last survivors that are among us and on their history, their pain, their trauma and their way to offer us some difficult moral obligations for the present,” he says.

It is the first time world leaders have not been permitted to speak at a significant anniversary of the liberation of the camp.

Cywiński also says the discussions over whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be in danger of arrest if he attended were a “media provocation,” claiming there was never an indication that the Israeli premier planned to attend.

The Polish government said last week it would ensure that Israel’s highest representatives can participate freely and safely in the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp later this month, after the country’s president asked for a guarantee Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be arrested over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Netanyahu is currently not planning on attending the commemoration, an aide to the premier told The Times of Israel. Cywiński tells the Guardian that a sizable Israeli delegation is nonetheless expected to attend.

Polish media reported last month that Netanyahu would avoid attending events commemorating the 1945 liberation of the Nazi camp later this month, fearing he could be arrested due to Poland’s commitment to respecting an International Criminal Court warrant issued for him over the war in Gaza.