Sixty years ago today, a facility to kill and incinerate human beings -- mostly Jews, but others as well -- was shut down by the advancing armies of the then-Soviet Union.

Here's the BBC's story:

World marks Auschwitz liberation

The site has become the most powerful symbol of the Holocaust Holocaust survivors and world leaders have held an emotional ceremony in Poland, 60 years after the liberation of the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp. The ceremony began with a train whistle on the railway track that brought more than a million people to their deaths. Thousands gathered in heavy snow next to the site of the German gas chambers, where Jews and others were murdered. "It seems as if we can still hear the dead crying out," Israeli President Moshe Katsav told the crowd. "When I walk the ground of the concentration camps, I fear that I am walking on the ashes of the victims." HISTORY OF AUSCHWITZ Construction began in 1940 on site which grew to 40 sq km (15 sq mile) At least 1.1 million deaths, one million of them Jewish Other victims included Polish political prisoners, Roma (Gypsies), Soviet POWs, homosexuals, disabled people and dissidents Of 7,000 Nazi guards, 750 were prosecuted and punished after the war On This Day: Auschwitz is liberated The Nazi regime murdered six million Jews and many others during what became known as the Holocaust. Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi camps, where 1.1 million people died, was liberated by the advancing Soviet army on 27 January 1945. Expressing fears over a resurgence in anti-Semitism in Europe, Mr Katsav questioned whether the memory of the Holocaust had lost its power to deter attacks and insults against Jews. "The answer is in the hands of Europe's leaders, it is in the hands of the educators and the historians," he said. Some of the elderly survivors sat wrapped in blankets against the driving snow for up to two hours before the ceremony began. Some wore tags displaying their prison number - numbers that are still tattooed on their bodies. "I'm number 4662," said one elderly woman. "We had no names here, and I have a hard time calling myself with my real name here. It's too painful."