Commemorative ceremony marks 77th anniversary of liberation of Terezín ghetto

State officials, WWII veterans and foreign diplomats attended a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Terezín ghetto on Sunday. Among those were Senate chair Miloš Vystrčil, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová and Defence Minister Jana Černochová.

Representatives of Russia and Belarus were not invited to the ceremony this year because of the war waged against Ukraine. The head of Terezín Memorial Jan Roubinek said the decision had not been easy since most of the country was liberated from Nazi occupation by the Red Army.

Between 1940 and 1945, more than 150,000 people, most of them Jews, were interned in the Terezín ghetto, the antechamber of the Nazi extermination camp. About 117,000 did not survive the war.