WARSAW, Poland (AP):
EUROPEAN LEADERS remembered the Holocaust on Friday, the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, with commemorations shadowed by concern over anti-Israeli remarks by Iran's president.
Several leaders used the occasion to reject Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel should be wiped off the map and his description of the Holocaust the murder of six million Jews by the forces of German dictator Adolf Hitler as a "myth."
MUST BE REMEMBERED
In a statement released at the U.N. European headquarters in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it was imperative the world remember the unique tragedy of the Holocaust and reject all attempts by 'bigots' to deny the extermination of the Jews during World War II.
"It must be remembered, with shame and horror, for as long as human memory continues," Annan said in the statement, released to mark the first international day commemorating the victims of the HolocaustOn a clear, cold day at Auschwitz, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz placed a wreath and bowed his head at the foot of the main memorial in honour of the some 1.5 million people who died at the Nazi-run camp.
The Holocaust "is a crime that tarnishes human history," Marcinkiewicz said. "Let it be a warning today and for the future. One cannot submit to ideologies that justify the possibility of trampling on human dignity."
Marcinkiewicz was joined by the Israeli ambassador to Poland, camp survivors and representatives of the Jewish community.
Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz and the neighbouring Birkenau camp on January 27, 1945, as World War II neared its end.
Some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, died there from gassing, starvation, exhaustion, beatings and disease. Other victims included Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents of the Nazis.
In Prague, Auschwitz survivor Felix Kolmor urged people to look ahead as well as back. "Let's not forget that memories of our suffering have to also be a point of departure for creating a better future," said Kolmer, 83.
Germany's parliamentary president Norbert Lammert urged that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to influence national policy, referring to recent remarks by Ahmadinejad in warning of the danger of anti-Semitism.
