Spotlight: Victim, veteran at UN mark 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation

The 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps by the Soviet Army was marked at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday with a special International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust service in the great hall of the General Assembly.

Highlights of the 10th annual international day included remarks by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa, Holocaust survivor Jona Laks and Soviet Army veteran Boris Feldman.

The event, postponed from Tuesday by forecast of a record- breaking snow storm, which proved off-target, carried the theme: " Liberty, Life and the Legacy of the Holocaust Survivors."

The UN chief recalled visiting Birkenau two years ago and how the scale of the atrocity was brought home to him. "Yet, even today, after all we have witnessed, all that we know, all we have pledged and all we have done, we face widespread challenges to our common humanity."

"Anti-Semitism remains a violent reality; Jews continue to be killed solely because they are Jews," he said. "Extremism and dehumanization are present across the world, exploited through social media and abetted by sensationalist press coverage. The targets are as diverse as humankind itself."

Ban pointed out in addition to anti-Semitism, Muslims "are under attack, the victims of bigotry at the hands of political opportunists and ultra-nationalists."

"We have not yet found the antidote to the poison that led to genocide 70 years ago," he said. "As we remember what was lost in the past, and as we recognize the perils of the present, we know what we must do and we know we must do it together."

Ambassador Denis Antoine, permanent representative of Grenada, spoke on behalf of the General Assembly president.

"We have a collective responsibility to draw the lessons of the Holocaust and pass them on to the present and future generations," Kutesa said. "When the General Assembly proclaimed this International Day in 2005, member states reaffirmed that the Holocaust 'will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.'"

"May the lessons of the past; the dangers of indifference, the roots and ramifications of prejudice and the importance of individual and collective responsibility guide our steps to prevent such acts of intolerance and hate from ever happening again."

Echoing Ban's remarks, the Israeli president said, "The slaughter of nations and of communities was not born in Nazi Germany and did not cease with the opening of the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek and Buchenwald" concentration camps.

"Now, in our own time, when the fundamentalist viper is raising its ugly head, we must remember that evil is not the property of any specific religion; just as it is not the attribute of any specific country or ethnic group," Rivlin said. "It is evil, that by its very nature, seeks to differentiate and discriminate between one life and another, between one human being and another, while the only real difference is between good and bad; between humanity and darkness." "For exactly that reason, those who regard Islam, Judaism, or Christianity, as enemies of the world are wrong and they mislead others," he said.

Holocaust survivor Jona Laks, said, "I am wondering how some scholars pride themselves of understanding the tragedy of the 6 million murdered Jews while I, myself, cannot understand or explain."

She recalled the German invasion of Poland when she was nine years old, how she survived being in the camps and medical experimentation.

"I was already able to see smoke coming out of the chimneys and could even smell the burned flesh," Laks described being marched to a crematorium.

Laks said she was saved from "extermination" when an older sister, Hannah, begged Jona be left to go with her twin sister, Miriam, dispatched to another queue, since they had never been separated. However, it meant she was destined for "genetic research" on twins under the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele.

"I wish I could spare you the gory details," Laks said. " Mengele carried out his experiments on hundreds of pairs of healthy, identical twins" and others.

She described detailed examinations and experiments with diseases, wounds to produce gangrene, injections of toxic chemicals, surgeries without anesthesia and the experimental joining of twins and even joining of their organs. "We were treated as inhuman creatures."

Soviet army veteran Feldman, speaking in a strong clear voice as did Laks, recalled his wartime experiences capped with the exhilaration of triumph but ended with a stern warning such Nazi- like terror could return.

"Today it is so painful for us to realize that the new monsters like terrorists and their supporters, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis are trying to destroy civilization," he said. "What our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren should expect when the militant Islamism is merciless to the civilized world? They do not hide their goal to bring to knees all progressive mankind using the most inhuman, ruthless ways."

"I have the right to appeal to you from this podium," Feldman said. "I am a 95-year-old man who survived wars, famine, camps, ghettos, toured the land of Europe with my own blood. I was wounded twice while freeing Romania, Hungary and Austria and was awarded with the highest soldier award, The Order of the Glory. People! Beware!

Additionally, Wednesday marked the opening in the General Assembly's Visitor Lobby, "Shoah - How Was It Humanly Possible?" organized by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority; the American Society for Yad Vashem; and the Israeli Mission to the United Nations, and the exhibit "Tenth Anniversary of the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program." Endite