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,

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.

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

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

World leaders rubbed shoulders with 56 survivors of Hitler's death camp as they marked 80 years since its liberation.

King Charles, Prince William and Kate Middleton are leading the royal family’s commemorations of the victims of the Holocaust on Holocaust Memorial Day.

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.

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

Survivors of the Nazi's notorious Auschwitz death camp are taking center stage at the memorial service to mark 80 years since its liberation by Soviet troops.

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.

Around 50 survivors and dozens of world leaders attended memorial events at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation ...