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European leaders observe Auschwitz anniversary

By wire services
Published January 28, 2006

WARSAW, Poland - European leaders remembered the Holocaust on Friday, the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, with commemorations shadowed by concern over anti-Israeli remarks by Iran's president.

Several leaders used the occasion to reject Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel should be wiped off the map and his description of the Holocaust - the murder of 6-million Jews by the forces of German dictator Adolf Hitler - as a "myth."

On a clear, cold day at Auschwitz, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz placed a wreath and bowed his head at the foot of the main memorial in honor of those who died at the Nazi-run camp.

Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz and the neighboring Birkenau camp on Jan. 27, 1945, as World War II neared its end. Some 1.5-million people, most of them Jews, died there from gassing, starvation, exhaustion, beatings and disease. Other victims included Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents of the Nazis.

VATICAN MAY EXPAND DIALOGUE: The Vatican is exploring whether to expand its Catholic-Jewish dialogue to include Muslims, although talks are at a very initial stage, Monsignor Michael Fitzgerald, who heads the Vatican's office for interreligious dialogue, said Friday after the World Jewish Congress said its chairman, Rabbi Israel Singer, had discussed the initiative with Fitzgerald and other high-ranking Vatican officials during a visit to Rome. "It is important to enter into discussions with the third "Abrahamic child' - Islam," Singer said in the statement.

[Last modified January 28, 2006, 01:39:07]