World leaders mark Holocaust Remembrance Day amid growing anti-Semitism in Europe

The 70th anniversary of the mass murder of Europe's Jews and of the liberation of Auschwitz has been commemorated by world leaders, while anti-Semitism has fiercely re-emerged in Europe.

Among the leaders attending the memorial for the victims of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, were the presidents of Germany and Austria and France and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Leaders paid tribute to the Auschwitz victims, while condemning all forms of exclusion and violence toward Europe's Jews. The absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the damage in the relations between Russia and the West over the Ukrainian crisis.

Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp located in Poland, where over 1 million Jews were killed during World War II until the camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945.

"There is no German identity without Auschwitz. The memory of the Holocaust remains a matter for all citizens who live in Germany," said German President Joachim Gauck, stressing that protecting the Jewish community is a "national responsibility" in the face of growing anti-Semitic attacks.

With sensitivity in all humanitarian matters, including the Holocaust, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released a press statement for Holocaust Remembrance Day, while highlighting the rise in anti-Semitism, "which formed a basis for the inhuman Nazi ideology, still surviving today" and therefore, "the importance of fighting tirelessly against this phenomenon."

French President François Hollande paid tribute to some 75,000 Jews who were deported to Nazi death camps during the Second World War, addressing French Jews saying "France is [their] homeland."

France is home to Europe's largest Jewish population, estimated to be between 500,000 and 600,000. The Charlie Hebdo attack on January 7 prompted fears among many French Jews, as more Jews consider fleeing to Israel due to growing security concerns. Some 851 anti-Semitic acts were registered in 2014, compared with 423 the previous year 2013. The acts of physical violence also jumped to 241 from 105, according to figures released by the CRIF, Paris-based Jewish organization.

Meanwhile, Turkey hosted a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday in the capital Ankara, as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish community living in Turkey. Parliamentary spokesman Cemil Çiçek, the second person who serves as acting president in the absence of the president, also attended the Holocaust commemoration event held by the Parliament of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the European Parliament in Prague.