Dutch people commemorate Holocaust, Auschwitz

During the annual National Holocaust Remembrance in Amsterdam on Sunday Mayor Eberhard Van der Laan urged to "keep remembering and keep in mind the lessons of World War II."

After a silent march from the City Hall to the monument 'Never Again Auschwitz' in the Wertheimpark several hundreds of people, including Van der Laan and Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher, attended the National Holocaust Remembrance, almost 70 years after the liberation of the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945.

"We must not only remember, but also think," said Van der Laan in his speech. "How can we stop rising anti-Semitism, prevent history repeating itself."

"We cannot look away from anti-Semitism and discrimination," said Asscher. "The warning of Auschwitz is also valid today."

The Dutch commemorate the Holocaust in several ways this week. In Westerbork in the province of Drenthe the reading of names of the 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust, mainly Jews and also Roma and Sinti, started last Thursday.

The reading on day and night is designed to take 116 hours and done by 700 people, survivors, relatives of victims, kids, who read every 10 minutes. The last name is to be read out on Jan. 27, when it's 70 years after the Auschwitz camp was liberated. Endit