Never again, again

A DECADE ago, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Red Army troops, survivors of the Nazi death camp huddled on chairs in the freezing cold while politicians, including Russia's Vladimir Putin, made long speeches. For the 70th anniversary ceremony being held today, probably the last major one the ageing survivors will attend, the plan was to make the survivors (including Miroslaw Celka, pictured) the centre of attention. Instead, politicians are again grabbing the limelight.

Instead of focusing on the sheer horror of a place where 1.1m people were murdered, most of the attention has been on Mr Putin. The Russian leader decided not to attend the ceremony in Auschwitz, feeling snubbed because Polish authorities had not invited him. In fact, the Poles had deftly avoided inviting any politicians in person; the Auschwitz museum simply alerted embassies that there would be an observance on January 27th, and asked who would attend. Other officials, including Germany's president Joachim Gauck, got the message and said they would show up. So did Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko (with a helping hand from Poland's prime minister, Ewa Kopacz, who asked him whether he planned to attend while in Kiev earlier this month).