The events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz have served as a new gesture of collective introspection and reflection on the most harrowing episode in human history, so rich in atrocities. They have also offered a new image of European unity, with its main representatives in the photo, so necessary in a time of turmoil like this one in which Old Europe is shaken by hurricane-like winds from the outside and by extremist spirits injected like Trojan horses trying to undermine its foundations from within.
But any commemoration with a summit of leaders like the one that yesterday brought together more than thirty international leaders inevitably becomes a diplomatic matter in which, rather than learning from the lessons of the past, as is ceremoniously repeated, everything ends up being reduced to a present-day geopolitical reading. Thus, as important as the presence of leaders on Polish soil has been on this occasion, so have the absences. Three empty chairs in particular: that of the new President of the United States, Donald Trump - the final decision not to send his vice president J.D. Vance as a representative is one of those ominous signs that have been reaching us from across the pond for a week now; that of the eternal Russian autocrat, Vladimir Putin - in his case, without an invitation to the festivities, even though on January 27, 1945, the spotlight was on the Red Army; and that of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The authorities in Warsaw made every effort to encourage the latter to participate in the commemorations, guaranteeing him maximum personal protection by ensuring that the arrest warrant against the head of the Israeli government issued by the International Criminal Court in the midst of the ongoing investigation into the war in Gaza would not be enforced, a backdrop impossible to forget also in this commemoration of Auschwitz. Poland's futile gesture towards Netanyahu - a signatory of the Rome Statute and a member of the Twenty-Seven - represents an astonishing attitude and speaks volumes about how some interpret the law.
History and its lessons, oh... Five years ago, Netanyahu was precisely the great host of world leaders who came to Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust. At that time, Putin was received with the highest honors, although around the same time, Warsaw denied him a place in the commemorations that also took place at the eerie Auschwitz. Tensions between Russia and Poland were already at a peak, although Europe still held its breath and deluded itself into believing that the Kremlin would not do something like perpetrate a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Nuremberg trials, it is good to always remember, laid the foundations for an international justice that was supposed to make this world a more habitable place and foster a society of nations that would prevent the impunity of those who, simply because they are stronger, believe they have the right to impose their law. It was then that the doctrinal foundations were laid that would shape the classification of the mass crime that is genocide. For the Nazi Germany, it would not be the last, not by a long shot.
No matter how much we try to look back, these types of commemorations like yesterday's high-level summit, we insist, are a great reflection of present-day geopolitics. And in that sense, it is at least comforting that the bulk of the top European leaders did gather yesterday at Auschwitz to somehow reaffirm that the communal dream that began to take shape in the aftermath of World War II is still alive.
In Poland, the presence of members of the Monarchies that still exist in Old Europe has been very prominent. And not by chance. From King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia - who were already present at the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz, even though now Sánchez in his totum revolutum tried to link that presence to his glorious Franco Year filled with events - to a Charles III of the United Kingdom especially committed to the memory of the Holocaust and who, rightly so, likes to boast of the role of the Commonwealth of which he is now the head in ending the heartbreaking universal conflict.
It is often forgotten that almost all the parliamentary monarchies that survive in Europe, most of them with very high popularity ratings, were strengthened by their role during the war and their activism against Nazism. Cases like the reigning monarchs of Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, or Luxembourg at that time earned them recognition among their fellow citizens, from which their successors still benefit today. Moreover, among all the countries that make up the EU, the 10 parliamentary monarchies are among the top in terms of full democracies, and the institution represents both a guarantee of constitutional defense and a lightning rod against the extremist populism that today, as in the years leading up to 1945, was corroding the continent.
Other European kings like Willem and Maxima of the Netherlands, along with Frederik X of Denmark, or the heirs to the thrones of Norway and Sweden, shared a moment of those that still bring a lump to the throat with other European leaders, such as the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, the German Head of State, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, or the Ukrainian President Zelenski. The memory of what humanity, and specifically Europeans, were capable of doing 80 years ago is overwhelming. But all these leaders had reasons to be overwhelmed by what Europe is facing today.