US Pelosi visits Auschwitz ahead of liberation anniversary

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Congress delegation are paying a visit to the site of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau ahead of the 75th anniversary of its liberation by Soviet troops.

At the memorial site in southern Poland, Pelosi and Poland's Senate Speaker, Tomasz Grodzki, laid wreaths Tuesday at the Auschwitz Death Wall where inmates were executed.In a statement ahead of her trip, Pelosi said it was to “reaffirm America's enduring commitment, our sacred pledge: Never again.”

“We must honor the memories of those murdered in this incomprehensible horror by maintaining constant vigilance against hatred and persecution today," said the statement.

From Poland, Pelosi and the bipartisan delegation of six Congress members travel to Israel to attend a conference marking the anniversary of the World War II camp's liberation.From 1940-45, some 1.1 million people, mostly Europe's Jews, were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was liberated Jan. 27, 1945, by the Red Army.

Image Credit: AP