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International Holocaust Day
The international Holocaust day was marked throughout the world last week. On January 27th, 1945 the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. In 2005 the United Nations general assembly declared January the 27th as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
On this day ceremonies take place throughout the world, many of them on the soil of Poland in which most of the European Jewry were exterminated in death camps during 1939 – 1945.
An important event took place on Tuesday. 150 senior Muslim figures arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau in order to commemorate with the six million Jewish victims.
Among the members of the Muslim delegation were Abdoulaye Wade, the President of Senegal from West-Africa, former states’ leaders, diplomats, and academics from Iraq, Turkey and other parts of the Muslim world.
The Muslim delegation was escorted by Jews and Christians, among them Rabbis and Priests. The senior Jewish figure was Israel’s former chief Rabbi Yisrael-Meir Lau, who is a Holocaust survivor. The German senior representative was the former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Another important figure in the Muslim delegation was Karim Lahiji, President of the Iranian League for the defense of human rights.
The organizers considered the visit extremely important as most participants come from countries that are systematically denying the Holocaust and encouraging hatred and Anti-Semitism.