Hundreds of people gathered in Paris Sunday for a national commemoration for tens of thousands of Jews and others who were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

French President Jacques Chirac led the commemoration which was also attended by hundreds of war veterans and survivors of the death camps.

"We are here to recall the Nazi madness," said Chirac at the gathering which was held at the Human Rights Square overlooking the Eiffel Tower. "The history of humanity is forever marked by the Shoah," he said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.

While saying France is proud of its people's courageous fight against the Nazis during the war, Chirac again acknowledged the role of the French state and many French people in the deportations.

The historical lessons should be drawn upon, he said.

In 1995, Chirac become the first French president to acknowledge France's responsibility for arresting and deporting more than 150,000 Jews, political dissidents, Gypsies and resistance fighters to death camps during the war.

A national commemoration is held in France on the last Sunday of April every year to remember the "victims and heroes of the deportation."

Source: Xinhua