Europe is recalling one of its darkest eras with a series of ceremonies throughout the continent to mark the 56th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
Britain and Italy are holding their first ever Holocaust Memorial Days, while survivors, spiritual leaders and politicians across Europe pledge to remember a grim historical lesson about the consequences of intolerance.
Auschwitz survivor Ms Hedi Fried, speaking in Stockholm, Sweden, said not everyone who survived had the strength to share their experiences.
"We who can have an extra obligation... we owe it to our murdered parents, the six million Jews, 500,000 gypsies and countless homosexuals, Russians and Poles who died."
In Germany, where a sharp rise in violent attacks on minorities gave the annual Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism added resonance, the parliament's president, Mr Wolfgang Thierse, issued a warning about the dangers of neo-Nazism.
About 1,000 Auschwitz survivors and relatives of victims gathered at the former death camp in Poland and marched along railway tracks from the Birkenau gate in a tribute to the 1.5 million people who died in the camp.
Italy marked Holocaust Memorial Day with a ceremony in Milan organised by Italian unions and a moment of silence during evening soccer games.
Italian president, Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi acknowledged Italy's blame in the Holocaust, calling Benito Mussolini's racial laws a betrayal of the country's founding principles.
PA