Auschwitz survivors revisit their haunted past.

Auschwitz survivors with their Russian liberators in January 1945. Source: CNN.com

January 27th, 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Many of the notorious camp survivors have chosen to return to commemorate the day. For some, like Renee Ganz, revisiting the place that has haunted them is an important part of the healing process.

Ganz, a self-described optimist, tries not to dwell on the horrors of the Holocaust and the 100 relatives she lost, but the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau has stirred up painful memories. She spent two months at Auschwitz before being sent to a slave labor camp along with her mother, who also survived the war.

On Tuesday — Holocaust Remembrance Day — Ganz will return to the death camp for the first time, along with nearly 100 other Auschwitz survivors from 19 countries.

“It will be very difficult, but it is important,” she says.

Read the full story: Auschwitz survivor: Being alive is best ‘revenge’

History Channel: This day in history, January 26th — Soviets liberate Auschwitz.

For others, the trip is about honoring those who did make it out.

Paris resident [Isabelle] Choko is now among 200 Holocaust survivors facing their demons this week. The elderly group is marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkeanau by the Soviets on Jan. 27, 1945. In Auschwitz alone, some 1.1 million died — about 90 percent of them Jews.

The journey back to Auschwitz is not simply a personal trip of remembrance for many returnees. Marcel Tuchman, 93, says he owes a debt to those who were exterminated to travel back.

“Their voices have been silenced by gas chambers and crematoria, so we the survivors have the duty to honor their memory and speak the best we can for them, and tell this unprecedented story of destruction of millions of people,” said the doctor of internal medicine who is originally from Heidelberg, Germany.

Read the full story: Auschwitz Concentration Camp Survivors Return to Mark Anniversary

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