Warnings of rising xenophobia on 72nd anniversary

WARSAW: Jewish and Christian leaders prayed over the ruins of gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau as some warned on International Holocaust Remembrance Day of rising xenophobic hatred against Jews, Muslims and others.

Camp survivors gathered on Friday with political leaders and representatives of Poland’s Jewish community at the site where Nazi Germany murdered about 1.1 million people during World War II, mostly Jews from across Europe, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others.

Poland’s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, who is from Oswiecim, where the Auschwitz memorial and museum is located, recalled the “destruction of humanity” and the “ocean of lost lives and hopes” that resulted from the genocide. “It’s an open wound that may close sometimes but it shall never be fully healed and it must not be forgotten,” she said.

In Germany, outgoing Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his nation sticks by its obligation to take responsibility for the crimes committed by the Nazi regime.

Steinmeier said, “History should be a lesson, warning and incentive all at the same time. There can and should be no end to remembrance.”

The United Nations recognised January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005, and many commemorative events were held across the world.

“Tragically, and contrary to our resolve, anti-Semitism continues to thrive,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “We are also seeing a deeply troubling rise in extremism, xenophobia, racism and anti-Muslim hatred. Irrationality and intolerance are back.”