POLAND: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits former World War II Nazi death camp Auschwitz on the first day of his visit to Poland for the UN climate conference

Record ID: 564763

  • Title: POLAND: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits former World War II Nazi death camp Auschwitz on the first day of his visit to Poland for the UN climate conference
  • Date: 18th November 2013
  • Summary: OSWIECIM, POLAND (NOVEMBER 18, 2013) (REUTERS) AUSCHWITZ GATE WITH INSCRIPTION "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" (GERMAN: WORK MAKES YOU FREE) BARBED WIRE FENCE SURROUNDS THE CAMP VARIOUS UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON ARRIVING AT GATE VARIOUS BAN VISITING AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM WITH MUSEUM DIRECTOR PIOTR CYWINSKI AND FORMER CAMP INMATE MARIAN TURSKI VARIOUS OF BAN AT THE "WALL OF DEATH" EXECUTION SITE VARIOUS OF BAN MEETING WITH RABBI MEIR LAU UNITED NATIONS FLAG FLUTTERING IN DISTANCE BRZEZINKA, POLAND (NOVEMBER 18, 2013) (REUTERS) BAN VISITING FORMER NAZI DEATH CAMP 'BIRKENAU' (SOUDBITE) (English) BAN KI-MOON, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL, SAYING: "Even today the fire smolders. Anti Semitism retains a hold in too many places, in Europe and elsewhere. Migrants, Muslims, women and other minorities face rising discrimination and find too few defendants. The world must never forget , downplay or deny the holocaust. We must remain ever on our guard. We must do more, far more to promote equality and fundamental freedoms." VARIOUS OF BAN WRITING IN MEMORIAL GUESTBOOK VARIOUS FORMER 'BIRKENAU' CONCENTRATION CAMP
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0I6P4PLSHT9XVSKI2MVGCX1L
  • Story Text: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the site of World War II Nazi death camp Auschwitz on Monday (November 18) to pay tribute to Holocaust victims on the first day of his visit to Poland for the UN climate conference COP 19.
    Ban Ki-moon visited Auschwitz, the first of two camps set up in neighbouring towns Oswiecim and Brzezinka. He walked under the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (German: Work makes you free) above a gate which prisoners passed on their way to their barracks. Ha also saw exhibitions documenting the lives of the inmates and the conditions they suffered.
    He made a plea for more tolerance and equality in the world: "Even today the fire smolders. Anti Semitism retains a hold in too many places, in Europe and elsewhere. Migrants, Muslims, women and other minorities face rising discrimination and find too few defendants. The world must never forget , downplay or deny the holocaust. We must remain ever on our guard. We must do more, far more to promote equality and fundamental freedoms," he said.
    Some 1.5 million people, mostly Jews but also Roma, Poles and others, died in gas chambers or from starvation and disease in Auschwitz and the neighbouring Birkenau death camp in Nazi occupied Poland between 1940 and 1945.
    This was the first visit by Ban Ki-moon to Auschwitz; the last UN Secretary General to visit the former death camp was Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1995.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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