When the Soviet army entered Auschwitz 70 years ago, finding piles of corpses and prisoners close to death, a Russian soldier took a small and hungry 11-year-old girl into his arms and rocked her tenderly, tears coming to his eyes.

The notorious sign that once spanned the main gate at Auschwitz will not return to its original spot after being recently repaired from the damage it suffered during a 2009 theft.

DOZENS of people who lived near Auschwitz and risked their lives to help inmates at the Nazi death camp were honoured on Saturday, the 62nd anniversary of the camp’s liberation.