As the liberation of Auschwitz approaches its 70th anniversary this month, Reuters photographers took portraits of now elderly survivors. About 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed at the Nazi camp which has became a symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust and World War Two, which ravaged Europe. The camp was liberated by Soviet Red Army troops on January 27, 1945 and about 200,000 camp inmates survived.
Maria Stroinska, 82, gestures as she poses for a portrait in Warsaw. Stroinska was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she and her sister were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow before she was moved alone by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Maria Stroinska, 82, holds a family photo taken before the war. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Jadwiga Bogucka (maiden name Regulska), 89, who was registered with camp number 86356, poses for a portrait in Warsaw . When Bogucka was 19, she and her mother were sent from their house to a camp in Pruszkow and then moved on August 12, 1944 by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Jadwiga Bogucka (maiden name Regulska), 89, holds a picture of herself from 1944 in Warsaw. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Barbara Doniecka, 80, who was registered with camp number 86341, poses for a photo in Warsaw. Doniecka was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau with her mother. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Auschwitz death camp survivor Barbara Doniecka holds up wartime photo of herself. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Eva Fahidi, 90, holds a picture of her family, who were all killed in the concentration camp during World War Two, as she poses for a portrait in Budapest. Fahidi was 18 in 1944 when she and her family were moved from Debrecen to Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)
Elzbieta Sobczynska (maiden name Gremblicka), 80, who was registered with camp number 85536, holds her father's watch, which was kept by her brother while they were in the camp. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Lajos Erdelyi, 87, holds a drawing made by a campmate as he poses for a portrait in Budapest. Erdelyi was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944 and was later moved to another camp. When he was freed he weighed under 30kg. (Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)
Janos Forgacs, 87, holds a document as he poses for a portrait in Budapest. Forgacs recalls that he was in a group transported to a camp in a cattle wagon, with the windows sealed with barbed wire. An military officer told them to hand over their belongings, telling them they would not need them anymore. (Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)
Janina Reklajtis, 80, who was registered with camp number 83043, holds a photo of herself taken during the war. Reklajtis was 12-years-old during the Warsaw Uprising when she and her mother were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
Danuta Bogdaniuk-Bogucka (maiden name Kaminska), 80, poses for a portrait in Warsaw January 5, 2015. Bogdaniuk-Bogucka was 10-years-old when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp with her mother. Bogdaniuk-Bogucka was part of Josef Mengele's experiments when she was in Auschwitz. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)