The head of the World Jewish Congress asked world leaders to prevent another Auschwitz, warning of a rise in anti-Semitism that has made many Jews fearful of walking the streets and is causing many to flee Europe.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, made his bleak assessment on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, speaking next to the gate and the railroad tracks that marked the last journey for more than a million people murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He said his speech was shaped by the recent attacks in France that targeted Jews and a newspaper that satirizes religious extremists, among others.
"For a time, we thought that the hatred of Jews had finally been eradicated. But slowly the demonization of Jews started to come back," Lauder said. "Once again, young Jewish boys are afraid to wear yarmulkes on the streets of Paris and Budapest and London. Once again, Jewish businesses are targeted. And once again, Jewish families are fleeing Europe."
One Holocaust survivor, Roman Kent, became emotional as he issued a plea to world leaders to remember the atrocities and fight for tolerance. "We do not want our past to be our children's future," the 85-year-old said to applause, fighting back tears and repeating those words a second time.
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski told the ceremony the Germans had made Poland a "cemetery for Jews". Auschwitz survivor Halina Birenbaum, born in 1929, said her greatest duty was to "tell others how much people [in the camps] had wanted to live... I lived my mother's dream to see the oppressor defeated," she told the ceremony.
Former inmates described how the Nazi guards had forced families apart, sorting new arrivals into those fit enough for hard labor, and those who would go straight to the gas chamber. After the speeches, Jewish and Christian prayers for the dead were said before candles were lit at the Birkenau monument to the victims.
The World Jewish Congress, in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation, had brought 101 survivors of Auschwitz, from 22 countries, together with members of their families, to participate in the commemorative event.
Auschwitz was liberated on 27 January 1945.Anniversary ceremonies took place in other parts of the world.
In the Czech capital Prague, speakers of legislatures from across the EU gathered with the European Jewish Congress to issue a declaration condemning anti-Semitism and hate crimes.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. "My job as prime minister of Israel is to make sure that there won't be any more threats of destruction against the State of Israel. My job is to ensure that there won't be any reasons to establish any more memorial sites like Yad Vashem."
