Holocaust ‘must be remembered with shame and horror’

EUROPEAN leaders remembered the Holocaust yesterday, the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, with commemorations shadowed by concern over anti-Israeli remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Several leaders used the occasion to reject Mr Ahmadinejad’s statement that Israel should be wiped off the map and his description of the Holocaust - the murder of 6 million Jews - as a “myth”.

At Auschwitz, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz laid a wreath at the memorial to 1.5 million people who died at the Nazi-run camp. He 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.

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 Kolmer 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,” he said.

In Budapest, Hungary, some 3,000 people gathered outside parliament to release 600 white balloons symbolising the 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.

Germany’s parliamentary president Norbert Lammert urged that the lessons of the Holocaust continue to influence national policy, referring to remarks by Mr Ahmadinejad in warning of the danger of anti-Semitism.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it was imperative the world remember the Holocaust and reject all attempts by “bigots” to deny the mass murder of the Jews during World War II.

“It must be remembered, with shame and horror, for as long as human memory continues,” Mr Annan said in a statement released to mark the first international day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.