Germans told never to forget Holocaust
Source: Agencies |
January 28, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE president of Germany said yesterday that each generation must grapple anew with the crimes of the Nazi era, as German and Polish leaders and Holocaust survivors prepared for ceremonies marking the 66th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp's liberation.
Nazi Germany killed about 1.1 million Jews, Gypsies and others at the site in Poland. The camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, by the Soviet army.
Christian Wulff said before the ceremonies at the Auschwitz site that each generation must consider how civilization broke down in the Nazi era and work to prevent such crimes from ever happening again.
In Berlin, the German parliament convened yesterday for a special -session commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.
Parliamentary President Norbert Lammert said it is the duty of later generations to keep alive the memory of those murdered by the Nazis. A survivor representing Sinti and Roma, or Gypsies, also spoke, talking about what he called the "forgotten Holocaust" against 500,000 of his people.
Political prisoners, gays and lesbians and Jehovah's witnesses were also killed by the Nazis, along with nearly six million Jews.
"To label people as 'unworthy' and order their 'destruction' and, finally, to systematically murder millions in an industrialized fashion - that is unique in human history," Lammert said. "The memory of those events and aberrations obliges us to respect all people equally ... and to confront violations of human rights in Germany and everywhere else in the world."
Separate ceremonies were held elsewhere in Germany, including at the Buchenwald concentration camp site.
Nazi Germany killed about 1.1 million Jews, Gypsies and others at the site in Poland. The camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, by the Soviet army.
Christian Wulff said before the ceremonies at the Auschwitz site that each generation must consider how civilization broke down in the Nazi era and work to prevent such crimes from ever happening again.
In Berlin, the German parliament convened yesterday for a special -session commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.
Parliamentary President Norbert Lammert said it is the duty of later generations to keep alive the memory of those murdered by the Nazis. A survivor representing Sinti and Roma, or Gypsies, also spoke, talking about what he called the "forgotten Holocaust" against 500,000 of his people.
Political prisoners, gays and lesbians and Jehovah's witnesses were also killed by the Nazis, along with nearly six million Jews.
"To label people as 'unworthy' and order their 'destruction' and, finally, to systematically murder millions in an industrialized fashion - that is unique in human history," Lammert said. "The memory of those events and aberrations obliges us to respect all people equally ... and to confront violations of human rights in Germany and everywhere else in the world."
Separate ceremonies were held elsewhere in Germany, including at the Buchenwald concentration camp site.
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