Elton John to perform at Auschwitz music festival

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE – Elton John will be the headline act at a festival near Auschwitz later this month. The singer-songwriter will perform at the Life Festival in Oswiecim, the Polish town where the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was located, along with other high profile stars such as Queen.

The festival was announced in December shortly after the terrorist attacks that shook Paris.

Mr John said in a statement published on the festival’s website at the time: “Like everyone, I am shocked by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere. In June, in Oswiecim, we’ll be celebrating life, peace and music.”

Life Festival Oswiecim was established by Polish journalist Darek Maciborek in 2010 to “break the spell” of the town’s association with the Holocaust.

It describes itself as “build[ing] peaceful relations beyond cultural and state borders where there is no place for anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of xenophobia.”