Germany remembers Holocaust victims

Germany’s parliament today remembered the victims of the Nazis, and the parliament president said the Iranian leader’s recent dismissal of the Holocaust demonstrates “how much not only we Germans” need to keep its memory alive.

Addressing politicians on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Parliament President Norbert Lammert said the need to commemorate the millions of Jews and others murdered by the Nazis will not diminish with time.

“The past weeks have shown us how much not only we Germans need this remembrance day,” Lammert said.

“With dismay we have had to note that today, even presidents insist on describing the Holocaust as a ’fairy tale’ and go so far as to make anti-Semitic remarks.”

Germany has joined other nations in expressing concern about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s labelling of the Holocaust as a “myth”.

Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex – where more than 1.5 million people perished, most of them Jewish.