Komorowski laid a red and white wreath, echoing the colours of the Polish flag, at the so-called Wall of Death in the Auschwitz I camp.
Survivors walked in silence beneath the camp's infamous 'Arbeit macht frei' sign ('Work makes you free').
''I'm here to to provide a testimony to what happened here, so that no one can falsify history,'' camp veteran Sabina Nawara told Polish Radio.
''We are trying to provide a reminder of how it really was,'' she added.
''I'm happy, because I'm 92, and I'm alive, even though I spent three-and-a-half years in Auschwitz.''
Auschwitz survivors during Tuesday's commemorations. Photo: PAP/Andrzej Grygiel
Over 1 million people perished at the combined camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The principal victims were Jews, while other casualties included ethnic Poles, Russian POWs and the Roma.
In a meeting with journalists in the town of Oświecim prior to Tuesday's ceremonies, US-based survivor David Wisnia recalled the brutal realities of camp life.
''We did not come there to live, we came there to die,'' he said.
''So the number of people who survived were minimal.
''Those who had enough oomph survived: by cunning, by stealing, by doing everything they were not supposed to do, because they came there to die, not to live.
''I know it's difficult to comprehend something like that – it's amazing what human beings can do to human beings.''
Guests taking part in Tuesday's ceremonies include the presidents of France, Germany and Ukraine as well as the King and Queen of the Netherlands. (nh)
Listen to an interview with a survivor