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Poland Invites Russian Leader for Auschwitz Anniversary

   VOA News 07 January 2010
   Copy  of  the  inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" at the main entrance to
   the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz Birkenau, 18 Dec 2009

Photo: AP

   Copy  of  the  inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" at the main entrance to
   the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz Birkenau, 18 Dec 2009

   Polish  President  Lech  Kaczynski has invited his Russian counterpart
   Dmitri  Medvedev to this month's 65th anniversary of the liberation of
   the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz.
   President  Kaczynski's  office confirmed the invitation in a statement
   on  his  Web site. The move is being seen as an effort to improve ties
   with Russia.
   More  than  one  million people died at the Auschwitz camp in southern
   Poland  - most of them Jews - before it was liberated by Soviet troops
   on January 27, 1945.
   The camp was part of a network set up by Nazi Germany during World War
   II to exterminate Jews and anyone else it considered undesirable.
   The anniversary commemoration at the camp site, which is now a museum,
   is expected to draw a range of foreign officials.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters..

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