Auschwitz anniversary marked as peace in Europe again shattered by war

In all, some 1.1 million people were killed at the vast complex before it was liberated by Soviet troops on January 27 1945

People visit the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland (Michal Dyjuk/AP)

Survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau are gathering to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp in the final months of the Second World War, amid the horror of war again shattering peace in Europe.

The former concentration and extermination camp is located in the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland, which during the Second World War was under the occupation of German forces and became a place of systematic murder of Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and others targeted for elimination by Adolf Hitler and his henchmen.