A file image of King Charles III
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

King Charles III will attend a ceremony in Poland marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buckingham Palace said Monday (January 13, 2025), in his first visit to the former German Nazi concentration camp.

Ahead of the January 27 commemoration, King Charles, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, will also meet with community leaders in Krakow, and hold talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the palace added in a statement.

It will be the U.K. head of state’s fifth visit to Poland, including recent trips in 2008 and 2010.

Many international delegations are expected to attend the ceremony commemorating 80 years since the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Nazi Germany built the death camp after it invaded Poland in World War II.

The camp has become a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million European Jews, one million of whom died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.

Last week, the Polish government said it would grant free access to Israeli officials wanting to attend the commemoration, despite a warrant issued in November by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau with the lettering ‘Arbeit macht frei’ (‘Work makes you free’) in Oswiecim, Poland. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Q: Zyklon B was originally ‘Cyclone B’. While the ‘B’ distinguished the product from Zyklon A, it was also the first letter of the German name for the substance. How did this German name translate to English?

A: Prussic acid

Q: While Zyklon B became notorious during World War II, ______ in 1916 and Italy and the United States in 1918 also used it during World War I. Fill in the blank.

A: France

Q: At the Nazi concentration camp in Majdanek, Poland, camp officials used Zyklon B in two buildings: barracks 41 and 42. In barrack 41, they killed the prisoners. What purpose did Zyklon B serve in barrack 42? This was also Zyklon B’s original purpose.

A: Disinfecting clothing

Q: In 1946, X and Y became the only two businessmen to be executed for Nazi war crimes in Western Europe. They had sold Zyklon B to the Nazis knowing the sordid purpose for which it was intended. Name X and Y.

A: Bruno Tesch and Karl Weinbacher

Q: The primary constituent of Zyklon B is deadly because it inhibits the action of an enzyme called __________ _ _______ in mitochondria and chokes cells. Fill in the blanks.

A: Cytochrome c oxidase