U.N. Marks Liberation of Nazi Camps
NY Times Online News Report: January 12, 2005

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. General Assembly will commemorate the60th anniversary of the liberation of World War II Nazi concentration camps at a special session o­n Jan. 24, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

Annan said he was pleased that a majority of the 191 U.N. member states had agreed to the U.S. request for a meeting of the world body to mark the liberation.

``This will be an important occasion, since the United Nations was founded as the world was learning the full horror of the camps, and is dedicated to doing everything in its power to protect human dignity and prevent any such horror from happening again,'' U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Annan called o­n all countries to give the session their full support, he said.

In a letter to Annan o­n Dec. 9, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth requested a commemorative session o­n Jan. 24, three days before a similar event in the former Auschwitz death camp in Poland to mark its liberation by Soviet troops o­n Jan. 27, 1945. Between 1 million and 1.5 million prisoners -- most of them Jews -- perished in gas chambers or died of starvation and disease at Auschwitz. Overall, 6 million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

``We believe that it is important that the United Nations, an organization that rose out of the ashes of World War II and the Holocaust, mark this occasion in a manner fitting its historical significance,'' Danforth wrote. The United Nations was founded o­n Oct. 24, 1945 and Danforth said a commemorative session offered ``a unique opportunity for us all to remember and recommit to the founding principles and noble ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.''