US President Barack Obama paid homage to victims to the Holocaust on Monday, saying it underscores the need for "standing up against intolerance and injustice."
Obama marked Holocaust Remembrance Day with a statement "honoring the memory of all those who suffered, died and lost loved ones in one of the most barbaric acts in human history" during the period around World War II.
"More than six decades after the Holocaust, and at a time when Holocaust denial and genocidal ideologies persist, our grief and our outrage over the Nazis' murder of six million Jews and so many others have not diminished," Obama said.
"From this tragedy we see the cost of allowing hatred go unanswered in the world, but from this justice we also see the power of holding the perpetrators of genocide accountable. Remembering these events only reinforces our solemn commitment to confront those who tell lies about our history and to stop the spread of hate in our own time."
The US president added that "We must heed the urgency to listen to and care for the last living survivors, camp liberators and the witnesses to the Shoah."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned on Sunday that "the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned," and warned that hatred of Jews "still sweeps across the world... (and) is now directed against their state and its right to exist."