Almost 300 survivors of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camps at Auschwitz gather on Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of their liberation, in what for many will be the last such commemoration.

The ceremony will take place in front of the imposing Death Gate at Auschwitz-Birkenau in the presence of heads of state and royalty, starting at precisely the moment when the first Red Army tanks entered the camp in Nazi-German-occupied Poland on 27 January 1945. With most survivors now in their 80s and 90s, this marks the last big anniversary that many will be able to attend. “This is the last time we’ll have such a prominent survivor presence, so we’ve made a special effort to get them here,” Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, which is bringing 100 of the survivors, told the Guardian. “Many of them will no longer be with us for the 75th.”

Ten years ago, 1,500 survivors attended for the 60th anniversary commemorations. Even in the days and weeks running up to this year’s anniversary the number of survivors due to attend from 19 countries, has dropped, with some having died and others cancelling due to ill health.

The event will see survivors and dignitaries gathered under a vast tent encompassing both the infamous entrance gate and the platform where hundreds of thousands were dragged off cattle trains, and either sent to their deaths in the gas chambers or tattooed with numbers and set to work as slave labour.

Visitors walk around the former Auschwitz camp on Monday. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Among those due to attend are President of France François Hollande and President Joachim Gauck of Germany, as well as kings and queens of European royalty. The British delegation will be led by Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, while the United States delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

The filmmaker Steven Spielberg – who is credited with having brought the story of the Holocaust to a far wider audience with his 1993 picture Schindler’s List and whose Shoah Foundation has collected the testimony of 53,000 Holocaust witnesses – told an audience of survivors gathered at a Cracow hotel on Monday evening that the “call to remember” was increasingly important at a time of rising anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

“We’re once again facing the perennial demons of intolerance - anti-Semites, radical extremists and religious fanatics that provoke hate crime.”

He warned that there were pages on Facebook which targeted Jews and their geographic locations “with the intention to attack” and talked of the “growing effort to banish Jews from Europe”.

Also expected to attend, but in a lower-key capacity, is Rainer Hoess, the 49-year-old grandson of the camp commandant Rudolf Hoess. Hoess announced he would be at the ceremony, saying he would use the occasion as one of the last opportunities to “make amends” with those survivors who were prepared to speak to him.

The preparations for the event, which is taking place amid unprecedentedly tight security measures in southern Poland, have been overshadowed by a diplomatic row involving Russia, Poland and Ukraine over Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision not to attend. Kremlin officials say he is not appearing because he has not received an invitation. Polish officials say there was no snub intended, as no other world leader was given a specific invitation and embassies were told the event was open to all dignitaries who wished to come. But diplomats hint at a deeper fall-out over the conflict in Ukraine. Russian sensitivities have been further dented by remarks made by Polish politicians that the first tanks to roll into Auschwitz were in fact Ukrainian and not Russian.

The recent attacks in Paris and evidence of rising anti-semitism across Europe have heightened the sense of nervousness surrounding the anniversary, with lots of survivors admitting a reluctance to travel to Europe, and many seeking reassurance that the journey was a safe one to make.

“I don’t want to have survived Auschwitz and the subsequent 70 years to then be gunned down by Islamist terrorists,” Joseph Mandrowitz, 89, from Toms River, New Jersey, told the Guardian. The former forced labourer at the Auschwitz sub-camp, Buna, added: “I want to be given the chance to bear witness for what happened before the next generation has to take over.”

David Wisnia, 89, a cantor from Philadelphia, held up a photograph of his family of four children, five grandchildren and his wife of 64 years, and said: “This is my proof that Hitler didn’t win in the end.” Wisna, originally from Poland, who spent two-and-a-half years in Auschwitz, will sing the Jewish funeral prayer at the former death camp in front of thousands.

“I’m overwhelmed that I could live long enough to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the liberation,” he said. “I’m amazed that I survived my time in the camps. I still find it unbelievable what happened.”

Avi Wisnia, his 32-year-old grandson, a musician who is accompanying him, said he accepted the responsibility of taking on the baton from his grandfather when he was no longer able to tell his own story. “I will continue to recount what happened to him,” he said. “His story is my story, and when he’s gone it will be my responsibility to speak up.”

Survivor Igor Malicky, 89, from Krakow, returns to Auschwitz. Photograph: Action Press/Rex

Celina Biniaz, 84, one of 300 women to have been rescued by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler, told the Guardian. “For decades the survivors didn’t have a voice. We were referred to in the US simply as DPs or ‘displaced persons’. I started talking about my story only after the release of the film Schindler’s List, and it’s vital for me to be able to come back here and talk about my experiences.

“But we need to remember as well as the six million Jews who were murdered there were five million others, including Roma, homosexuals, those who weren’t so bright, Jehovah’s Witnesses and priests.”

Lauder, a billionaire philanthropist who has raised millions for the conservation of the remains of Auschwitz, said the anniversary, coming at a moment when anti-semitism is on the rise, was a reminder of the dangers when the world failed to speak up about persecution. “It’s happening to Christians now right across the Middle East and Africa, and the dangers of not speaking up have been made clear since the Paris attacks, when innocent people were gunned down mercilessly while shopping for food for the Shabbat [Jewish Sabbath]. “The survivors I have spoken to say they felt it was just a matter of time before anti-semitism came back, with the same virulent words and the same form of attack.”

Spielberg said the world needed to preserve the memory of Auschwitz and form a “meaningful collective conscience” for future generations.

“Taking on this task is an exceptional responsibility. It means preserving places like Auschwitz so people can always see for themselves how hateful ideologies can become tangible acts of murder. It means sharing and sustaining the testimonies of witnesses so that they can endure.”