The second international Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed in Budapest on Saturday with a ceremony held with the country’s president Laszlo Solyom, Constitutional Court president Zoltan Lomniczi and the ambassadors of Germany, Poland, the United States, Israel and Russia present, who placed candles by the victims’ memorial wall.

This official ceremony, marking the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1945, was held in the capital’s Holocaust Memorial Center. Candles were lit in front of a wall containing the names of Hungarian Jewish victims at the Memorial Centre.

In a written message, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany stressed the responsibility of people remembering the Holocaust today. "The fight against forgetting is nothing less than a permanent effort against suppression, exclusion, discrimination and tyranny," he said.

This event was part of the United Nations-designated “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”, marking the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on January 27th, 1945. Commemorative ceremonies have been organized throughout Europe.