The UN General Assembly held on Monday a special session to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, with

Secretary-General Kofi Annan and world leaders calling on the world to be on guard against a repetition of the holocaust in the future.

The day-long session is the first memorial of its kind to be held by the world body to mark the liberation of Nazi camps in Auschwitz, southwestern Poland. It was opened with a moment of silence, followed by speeches of General Assembly President Jean Ping and Annan.

"The United Nations must never forget that it was created as a response to the evil of Nazism, or that the horror of the Holocaust helped to shape its mission," Annan told the 191-member assembly.

"Such an evil must never be allowed to happen again. We must be on the watch for any revival of anti-Semitism and ready to act against the new forms of it that are appearing today," he stressed.

Those in Auschwitz were the biggest Nazi death camps and liberated by Soviet Red Army troops on Jan. 27, 1945. Up to 6 million Jews are estimated to have died in the concentration camps, as well as hundreds of thousands of others deemed undesirable due to ethnic origin, religious beliefs or other reasons, including gays and communists.

"But the tragedy of the Jewish people was unique," Annan said. "An entire civilization, which had contributed far beyond its numbers to the cultural and intellectual riches of Europe and the world, was uprooted, destroyed, laid waste."

Turning to more recent cases of genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, he declared: "On occasions such as this, rhetoric comes easily. We rightly say 'never again.' But action is much harder. Since the holocaust the world has, to its shame, failed more than once to prevent or halt genocide."

He noted that even today "terrible things" are happening in Darfur, Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have died and nearly 2 million have been uprooted in fighting between the government, pro-government militias and rebels.

He is due to receive an international investigation report on Tuesday determining whether the violence in Darfur constitutes genocide.

Before the gathering, Annan and his wife, Nane, hosted a coffee reception for death camp survivors and other distinguished guests, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Among the speakers were Wiesel and the foreign ministers of Israel, Germany, France, Argentina, Armenia, Canada and Luxembourg, which represents the European Union.

"The Jewish witness speaks of his people's suffering as a warning," said the visibly-emotional Wiesel. "He sounds the alarm so as to prevent these thins being done to others."

"He knows that for the dead it is too late; for them, abandoned by God and betrayed by humanity, victory came much too late. But it is not too late for today's children, ours and yours," he emphasized.

"If the world had listened, we may have prevented Darfur, Cambodia, Bosnia and naturally Rwanda," Wiesel said.

In his speech, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer promised that Germany will never forget atrocities committed by Nazis and will not sit idly by in face of anti-Semitic acts and other forms of racism.

"This barbaric crime will always be part of German history," he said. "If we are to live together in peace and mutual respect, we must never forget the barbarity of which humankind is capable."

"Our past makes it our duty to banish and combat all forms of anti-Semitism, but also racism, xenophobia and intolerance," he added. "Therefore we must not sit idly by while people are insulted, attacked or injured because of their faith."

Alluding to Japan, Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya told the gathering that countries concerned should draw lessons from World War II and take the path of peaceful development.

He also called for the strengthening of the United Nations' authority so as to make it more capable of preventing the recurrence of World War II and the Auschwitz tragedy.

The General Assembly's special session was requested by US Ambassador to the UN John Danforth, who said in a letter to Annan in early December that the event should take place three days ahead of the 60th anniversary of liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps, to avoid conflicting commemorations in Auschwitz.

The request was backed by some 150 UN member states, including Israel, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and the European Union.

Accompanying the special session, two exhibits will be opened at the UN headquarters in New York by Annan and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. One exhibit is a collection of photographs and paintings from the two death camps in Auschwitz and the other is a photographic exhibit by youth groups who visited what remains of the camps.

Source: Xinhua