Will the voices of Auschwitz be forgotten?

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AuschwitzA man crosses the iconic rails leading to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, July 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz, FILE)

On January 27, 1945, towards the end of World War II surviving prisoners of Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz, Poland were liberated by the Soviet Army.

As a part of Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution,” more than 1.1 million people from throughout Nazi occupied Europe, were forcibly brought to Auschwitz and murdered. That number includes nearly one million European Jews. Those who were not sent directly to gas chambers were sentenced to inhumane, forced labor.

Following World War II and the Nuremberg trials that revealed the Nazi horrors inflicted on Europe’s Jews, the world community swore it would never happen again.

Seventy five years, anti-semitism and extreme nationalism are on the rise in Europe and elsewhere. And, with many survivors passing on from old age, many worry the voices – and horrors – from Auschwitz may eventually be forgotten.

With us to talk about Auschwitz and the legacy of the holocaust 75 years later is Erin McGlothlin. She is Chair and Associate Professor of German and Jewish Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

More on Auschwitz and the rise of anti-semitism on The Heat broadcast