European leaders remember the Holocaust

European leaders remembered the Holocaust today, 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 6 million Jews by the forces of German dictator Adolf Hitler – as a “myth.”

On 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 the Second World War 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.

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

Tamas Bandi, 66, attended the memorial with his 13-year-old granddaughter, Agnes. “My mother and father were deported in front of my eyes when I was 4 years old,” Bandi said, tears running down his face.

“These are my parents,” Bandi said, pointing to the names he had written on a balloon. “When I let go of the balloon, I will think of them looking down on me and wish that this never happens again.”

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.

Lammert stressed that the need to commemorate the millions of Jews and other victims murdered by the Nazis will not diminish with time.

“We want to – and we must – continue to be prepared to learn from our history,” Lammert said at a special session of parliament.

“The past weeks have shown us how much not only we Germans need this remembrance day,” he 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 Ahmadinejad’s calling the Holocaust a “myth” and saying the Jewish state should be wiped off the map or moved to Germany or the US.

In a statement released at the UN European headquarters in Geneva, UN 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 Holocaust.