Holocaust survivors return for the 70th anniversary of Soviet army’s liberation of the Auschwitz camp

Some 300 Holocaust survivors gathered with world leaders yesterday under an enormous tent over the gate and railroad tracks that marked the last journey for more than a million people murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz were tinged with a sense of melancholy over the fact that it is expected to be the last major anniversary that a significant number of survivors will be strong enough to attend - and a sense of anxiety at the growing anti-Semitism and radicalism in Europe and the Middle East.

"Jews are targeted in Europe once again because they are Jews," said Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress.

One survivor, Roman Kent, became emotional as he issued a plea to world leaders to remember the atrocities and fight for tolerance. "We do not want our past to be our children's future," he said to applause, fighting back tears and repeating those words a second time.

Politics cast a shadow on the event, with Russian President Vladimir Putin absent - even though the Soviet Red Army liberated the camp - the result of the deep chill between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

Among those in attendance were French President Francois Hollande, whose nation was the recent victim of terrorist attacks that targeted Jews and newspaper satirists.