On Holocaust Memorial Day, German women mayors remember the millions of Nazi victims and warn against future hate
German female mayors like the mayors of Gelsenkirchen and Zwickau remember the victims of Nazi Germany. The sclupture, The Ramp, is a memorial which commemorates the deportation and extermination of European Jews*
January 2025: On 27 January, the victims of the Holocaust and the National Socialists are commemorated worldwide. The date commemorates the liberation of the surviving prisoners of the largest Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz by the Red Army on 27 January 1945 - 80 years ago. Since 1996, people in Germany have commemorated the millions of victims of genocide on this day. In November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly also passed a resolution making 27 January a global day of remembrance.
Auschwitz has become synonymous with the Holocaust. Between 1940 and 1945, well over a million people from all over Europe were deported to the largest German concentration camp near the small Polish town of Oswiecim near Krakow. The majority were Jews, but there were also around 140,000 Poles, tens of thousands of Sinti and Roma and thousands of homosexuals, as well as political prisoners of other nationalities. The number of people murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp and especially in the associated Birkenau extermination camp is estimated at around 1.1 to 1.5 million.
German cities and communities of all sizes commemorate the victims of the Holocaust on 27 January. Mayors have urged their fellow citizens never to forget the atrocities and to help ensure that they never happen again.
Augsburg (Bavaria)
Mayor Eva Weber
The city of Augsburg has commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day with a series of events on 26 January and on the day itself. “In times of increasing anti-Semitism and growing populist movements, it is imperative to keep the memory of the victims of National Socialism alive,’ said Mayor Eva Weber. “But this remembrance must be more than just a commemoration - we must act and take a firm stand to ensure that such crimes are never repeated. Because never again is now!”
Gelsenkirchen (North-Rhine Westphalia)
Mayor Karin Welge
We remember the 27th January 1945, when the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp and thus the end of the German death camps. International Holocaust Remembrance Day has reminded us of this since 2005.
Together we commemorate the million-fold victim of German nationalism and racism and thus keep the memory alive of where hatred and undemocratic thinking and actions can lead to. This is more important and necessary today than ever in the light of such ideologies.
That's why I'm also participating in the campaign ‘We Remember’ this year and commemorate on 27. January together with our Jewish community in the New Synagogue of the victims of national socialism, who were also uprooted from our midst here in Gelsenkirchen.
Köln / Cologne (North-Rhine Westphalia)
Mayor Henriette Reker
Henriette Reker will give the welcoming address and the Lord Mayor has some words of warning: ‘Describing parallels to history usually falls short. And yet we should reflect on the events between 1933 and 1945 in the light of our present: We are experiencing the rise of right-wing populism, nationalism and the rejection of fundamental values. Even democratic parties have allowed extreme forces to set the agenda.’
Bruchsal (Baden-Württemberg)
Mayor Cornelia Petzold-Schick
In Bruchsal, Ella Weiss symbolises the millions of victims who perished in the Nazi concentration camps during the Third Reich. “For us, she is a reminder that something like this must never happen again on German soil and an incentive to keep the memory alive 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.”
Ella Weiss came from Breslau (Wroclaw). In 1942, she and her family were deported first to Theresienstadt and later to Auschwitz. Ella Weiss was one of the few who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. She lived in Bruchsal from 1978 until she died in 2014 and was the town's last contemporary witness.
Neu-Ulm (Bavaria)
Mayor Katrin Albsteiger
“Even 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the end of the Second World War, we must not stop remembering this part of German history. It is very important to me personally to remember the victims of that time and to honour their memory. However, it is just as important to build a bridge to the present day, in which hatred and agitation are not diminishing, but are being fuelled more and more from many sides. The day of remembrance on 27 January is intended to keep the memory of the past alive, but also to set an example for peace.”
Kaiserslautern (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Mayor Beate Kimmel
On the occasion of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps by the Red Army 80 years ago, a memorial service for the victims of National Socialism was on 27 January 2025 on Synagogenplatz in Kaiserslautern. All citizens were invited to commemorate the victims, to keep the memory of the crimes of National Socialism alive and to reaffirm the values of tolerance, peace and human rights. Mayor Beate Kimmel spoke on behalf of the City of Kaiserslautern.
Zwickau (Saxony)
Mayor Constance Arndt
Eighty years after the liberation of the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps, we commemorate the countless victims who were murdered by the Nazis. Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, disabled people, prisoners of war, all those who refused to give up their freedom of thought and defended it, people who represented a potential danger to the National Socialist order. We remember all these people on 27 January.”
“Victims of the Nazi regime also lived in Zwickau. Neighbours, friends, relatives who were deported and died cruelly. We are not responsible for these deeds, but we are responsible for remembering and thus against forgetting.”
* The ramp is a memorial by the German artist E. R. Nele, which commemorates the deportation and extermination of European Jews during the National Socialist era. The sculpture is located on the grounds of the University of Kassel.
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