“God suffered a great deal in every single person who was here. God suffered a great deal in this place,” Cardinal Rys added.

By Barbara Erling and Kuba Stezycki OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) -Auschwitz survivors were being joined by world leaders on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops,

Auschwitz concentration camp is a symbol of the Holocaust in southern Poland, one of the most trying moments in human history.

In just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, built in the south of occupied Poland near the town of Oswiecim. Auschwitz was at the centre of the Nazi campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population, and almost one million of those who died there were Jews.

The ceremony is widely regarded as the last major observance likely to see a significant number of survivors in attendance.

Auschwitz survivors have warned of the rising antisemitism and hatred in the modern world as they gathered with world leaders and European royalty on the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation.

Silence pervades the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau today. Sometimes the only sounds are the soft footsteps of visitors, people who come from all over the world to mourn and to learn, and the voices of their guides speaking in hushed tones into microphones trying to explain the ungraspable.

In all, the Nazi regime murdered 6 million Jews from all over Europe, annihilating two-thirds of Europe's Jews and one-third of all Jews worldwide. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It doesn’t do any good for your heart, for your mind, for anything,” said Holocaust survivor Jona Laks, 94, about her return to Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

A Holocaust survivor who lived through four concentration camps as a young boy will return to Auschwitz to mark 80 years since the liberation of one of the Nazi's most notorious concentration camps

Around 50 survivors of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz gathered together for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp.