A MEMORIAL candle has been lit by a survivor of the Holocaust as tributes were paid across Scotland and elsewhere to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
Ela Weissberger visited Kyle Academy in Ayr in an event that was shown in other schools across Scotland as pupils came together for Holocaust Memorial Day.
The 84-year-old was joined by Hasan Hasanovic, 39, a survivor of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia which occurred 20 years ago, in detailing their personal experiences.
Ms Weissberger, who was 11 when she was transported from Prague to the Terezin concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic, still has her registration number and Jewish star. She was one of just 100 children to survive the camp, out of 15,000 who were taken there.
"I was taken to the fortress of Terezin but we didn't understand what will happen. We did not know what was waiting for us," said Ms Weissberger, who now lives in the United States.
Mr Hasanovic, whose father or twin brother vanished during the massacre of Muslim Bosniaks perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995, said it was vital to keep the memory of both genocides alive.
He added: "After the holocaust we said never again, but we have had subsequent genocides. The world, us, has not learned the lesson. We have to learn the lesson, we have to keep reminding people."
Ms Weissberger will also address young people from schools across Glasgow at the City Chambers today[wed].
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also met the survivors at a Holocaust memorial event in Ayr last night, hours after the Scottish Parliament remembered the anniversary.
SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell said: "Holocaust Memorial Day is a reminder that we all have a responsibility to stand up to prejudice, hatred and intolerance in our society - particularly at a time while hate crime and religious intolerance is reportedly on the rise across Europe."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie added: "On the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz, it is vitally important that we both continue to remember and learn from the appalling events of the Holocaust - as well as ensuring that we continue to challenge anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry."
In South Lanarkshire, Holocaust survivor Joanna Millan spoke to around 120 senior pupils from six high schools. The 72-year-old, who was just two when she was orphaned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp near Prague in 1944, came at the invitation of S6 pupils at Holy Cross High School in Hamilton.
Meanwhile, some 300 former Auschwitz prisoners took part in the commemoration ceremony on the site of the former concentration camp, built by the Nazis in 1940 as a place of incarceration for the Poles. From 1942, it became the largest site of extermination of the Jews from Europe.
Dignataries including French President Francois Hollande and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite were among those to attend the event.
In London, Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that a national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust is to be built in the centre of the capital.
Mr Cameron said the UK Government will contribute £50 million towards the construction of the "striking and prominent" monument, as well as the establishment alongside it of a "world-class" education and learning centre to maintain awareness for generations to come of what he described as "the darkest hour of human history".
It comes after a report by the Holocaust Commission, which was set up to ensure the lessons of the genocide continue to be learnt even after all eye-witnesses have died, found "worrying gaps in young people's knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust". For example, fewer than one-third of respondents to a survey knew what "anti-semitism" meant.
The announcement was made as the Prime Minister and other political party leaders joined the Prince of Wales at an event to mark National Holocaust Memorial Day.
The prince and Mr Cameron began the day of remembrance by meeting elderly survivors of the genocide.
Mr Cameron said: "Today we stand together - whatever our faith, whatever our creed, whatever our politics. We stand in remembrance of those who were murdered in the darkest hour of human history, we stand in admiration of what our Holocaust survivors have given to our country and we stand united in our resolve to fight prejudice and discrimination in all its forms."
The Prince of Wales described the Holocaust as not just a "Jewish tragedy" but a "warning and a lesson to all of us".
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