Ceremonies mark liberation of 2 Nazi camps 70 years ago
FUERSTENBERG - Officials in Germany solemnly commemorated on Sunday the liberation of two Nazi concentration camps 70 years ago in the closing days of World War II.
Poland's first lady, Anna Komorowska, joined in remembrance activities at the site of the Ravensbrueck women's camp in northern Germany. Many of the prisoners came from Poland.
Ceremonies also were taking place at the former Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum says 30,000 to 50,000 people died at Sachsenhausen, where inmates included Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and opponents of the Nazis. More than 130,000 women were imprisoned in Ravensbrueck; 20,000 to 30,000 died there.
Sachsenhausen was liberated on April 22, 1945, Ravensbrueck on April 30. Beforehand, Nazi officials forced thousands from the camps into death marches that killed many inmates.
