Europe remembers the Holocaust


Six million Jews were killed by Nazis

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Victims of genocide, including the attempt by Nazi Germany to exterminate Jews, are being remembered across Europe.

Germany, Italy and Sweden -- and for the first time the UK -- are among the countries remembering holocaust and genocide victims on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.

Six million Jews were exterminated by Nazis during the war, many of them in gas chambers disguised as shower rooms in concentration camps.

Holocaust Day will remember all those targeted by Nazi Germany, including gypsies and homosexuals and political prisoners, as well as victims of later genocides such as Rwanda and Cambodia.

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the leader of Britain's Jews, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former rock star Bob Geldof and actress Emma Thompson will be among those attending a memorial service in London.

"Holocaust Memorial Day is intended as an inclusive commemoration of all the individuals and communities who suffered as a result of the Holocaust -- not only Jews, but also Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political prisoners and dozens of ethnic and other minorities," UK Home Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement.

"The day will put a particular emphasis on educating people of all ages about the lessons to be learnt from genocide."

More than one million people, mostly Jews, were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Nazi-occupied Poland before it was liberated by the Russian army.

Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, will lead a candle-lighting ceremony in remembrance of the Holocaust victims and of genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Armenia.

The decision to include the deaths of Armenians in 1915 during the fall of the Ottoman empire has angered Turkey which says there was no genocide

Turkey says the death toll was far lower than the 1.5 million claimed by the Armenians and that both sides suffered in partisan fighting.

The office of Turkey's chief rabbi said in a statement: "We stress that the genocide of six million Jews in the Holocaust in World War II should not be compared to any other event and should not be overshadowed by so-called genocide claims."

The statement said inclusion in the British ceremony of "so-called genocides or claims unconfirmed by historians" was disturbing to Turkish Jews.

"This comparison is considered disrespectful to the souls of the six million victims (of the Nazi Holocaust)."

Turkey was enraged by a French parliamentary vote last week to recognise the allegations of genocide of Armenians. Ankara has cancelled a satellite contract with one French company and excluded another from a tank tender in retaliation.

Meanwhile, Germany's Nazi past continues to cause problems as far right extremists vent their hatred of Jews by vandalising synagogues and cemeteries.

Last year the number of far-right crimes jumped to the highest level since German unification in 1990.

Official figures due out this month are expected to show there was more than 800 violent anti-Semitic or anti-foreigner crimes in Germany in 2000, about 100 more than in 1999.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.