For the first time a head of the United Nations visited Monday the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
Ban walked through the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes You Free”) gate to see exhibitions that document the inhumane conditions that the inmates suffered there.
“I stare at the piles of glasses, hair, shoes, prayer shawls and dolls, and try to imagine the individual Jews and others to whom they belonged,” Ban said.
“I stand in disbelief before the gas chambers and crematorium - and shudder at the cruelty of those who designed this death factory.”
Ban laid flowers at the executions wall, where thousands of inmates, mostly Polish resistance members, were shot.
He then went to the nearby former Birkenau death camp, with its crematorium ruins and a monument to the victims.
“Auschwitz-Birkenau is not simply a register of atrocities. It is also a repository of courage and hope. Today I say loud and clear: Never again,” the UN head said.
The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch issued a statement welcoming Ban's visit.
In its statement, the group called the world body to do more against mass atrocities as well as to address rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
"The secretary-general's visit is a historic and welcome development for the leader of an organization founded in 1945 on the ashes of the Holocaust, with the aim to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human
Ban's visit comes days after the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released a major survey showing an alarming rise in anti-Semitism in eight European countries.
The survey of nearly 6,000 Jews in these countries showed that two-thirds of respondents found anti-Semitism to be a major problem in their countries, while more than 75% said the situation had become more acute over the last five years.