Auschwitz survivors decry rising anti-Semitism as they mark 80 years since camp's liberation

Elderly Holocaust survivors and dozens of world leaders gathered at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on Monday to mark 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camp where Nazi Germany murdered 1.1 million people. Some survivors warned against a new rise in anti-Semitism in their speeches during the ceremony.

Some of the few remaining survivors of Auschwitz returned to the Nazi death camp on Monday, condemning a "huge rise" in anti-Semitism on the 80th anniversary of its liberation.

Auschwitz was the largest of the extermination camps built by Nazi Germany and has become a symbol of the Holocaust of six million European Jews. One million Jews and more than 100,000 non-Jews died at the site between 1940 and 1945.

"Eighty years after liberation, the world is again in crisis," warned Tova Friedman, 86, adding that "the rampant anti-Semitism that is spreading among the nations is shocking".

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Along with Marian Turski, Janina Iwanska, and Leon Weintraub, Friedman was one of four former prisoners who spoke at the ceremony.

In total 50 fellow survivors gathered at the main commemoration outside the gates of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, joined by dozens of world leaders.

Anti-Semitism "had its willing supporters then, and it has them now," he said.

(AFP)


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