The children of Auschwitz: On the eve of the 70th anniversary of its liberation, Jews who appeared as youngsters in photograph taken at the concentration camp join those revisiting their past

The children of Auschwitz: On the eve of the 70th anniversary of its liberation, Jews who appeared as youngsters in photograph taken at the concentration camp join those revisiting their past

One the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a group of survivors hold up and point to a picture of themselves, which was taken the day the camp was freed by the Soviet army 

Auschwitz survivors visited the Nazi concentration camp today ahead of the 70th anniversary of its liberation

Four of the survivors were pictured with an image taken exactly 70 years ago when the camp was freed 

They travelled from all over the world for the visit with many returning to the camp for the first time to pay respects

Several gathered together entering the camp to say a prayer underneath the infamous 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign

The camp in Nazi-occupied Poland was liberated at the end of the Second World War by the Soviet army in 1945

81-year-old Paula Lebovics, 79-year-old Miriam Ziegler, 85-year-old Gabor Hirsch and 80-year-old Eva Kor pose with the original image of them as children

Tomorrow survivors will join heads of state for official commemorations to mark the liberation's 70th anniversary

Too bewildered and dehumanised to show any emotion, a dozen young faces peer out from a world beyond comprehension.

Witnesses to unfathomable depths of human savagery, these are among the last occupants of history’s most infamous slaughterhouse.

To stand in the Arctic chill of Auschwitz today, it seems extraordinary that anyone survived what unfolded here.

Eva Kor, left, and Miriam Ziegler, right point out how they looked the day prisoners in Auschwitz were freed near the end of the Second World War 

Yet, astonishingly, most of the people in this photograph – taken exactly 70 years ago today – are still alive. What’s more, four of them – including a victim of the abominable human vivisectionist, Dr Josef Mengele – have returned to Auschwitz to mark the 70th anniversary of the day that Soviet troops liberated this place.

Gabor Hirsch, left, and Paula Lebovics, right, both survived the camp and point at themselves on a picture taken the day the camp

January 27 is the date the world recognises as Holocaust Memorial Day.

And around 100 survivors will gather here this afternoon, alongside world leaders, to remember all of the 6million Jewish victims of Nazi Germany’s trans-contintental programme of industrial genocide.

Having beaten such insuperable odds to stay alive, it is a solemn sense of obligation to both past and future generations which has persuaded this small, heroic band to make this painful return journey for today’s anniversary.