The gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Oswiecim are seen behind a bouquet of flowers.
A list of confirmed names of Jews killed by the Nazis in World War Two has reached the four million mark, Israel’s Holocaust museum announced today, saying the identity of all six million dead may never be known.
“It is a moral imperative, an obligation for us to retrieve information and commemorate each and every individual who perished,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem.
“By doing so, a lot of important material comes up in our research to help combat Holocaust denial,” he told Reuters.
Yad Vashem has sorted through “millions of occurrences of names” over nearly six decades of research and taking testimony from survivors.
The knuckle-dusters, truncheons and jackboots in the first case of a new exhibition on 'Hitler and the Germans' in Berlin sets the tone for a stark look at how German society embraced the Nazi regime in all its brutality.
While lots of memorabilia is on show, from SS and Gestapo uniforms to a sideboard from Hitler's office, the exhibition shows how all levels of German society - media, industry, the church, schools -- built up the Hitler cult in the 1930s and clung to it through World War II until defeat was imminent.
Some media have portrayed the show opening on Friday in the German Historical Museum as a taboo-breaking first exhibition on Adolf Hitler himself. But the curators are at pains to stress that their focus is on the society that created the dictator.
'Germany awake!': This Nazi flag is one of the displays at the Hitler And The Germans ¿ Nation And Crime' exhibition which has opened at the German Historical Museum
Uniforms worn by the military and Nazi party officials form part of the exhibition which is seen by some as breaking the taboo of examining how complicit German society was in the rise of Hitler
The poster on the left shows the different 'German races' and the one on the right warns of the dangers of 'inferior races' having more children than 'higher quality' ones
A bear which 'fought' alongside Polish soldiers during the Second World War is to be honoured with a £200,000 statue in Edinburgh.
'Private Wojtek' was a 6ft-tall 35 stone Syrian brown bear which was adopted by a Polish regiment stationed in the Middle East .
When Allied commanders issued an order that troops advancing on Rome were not to be accompanied by animals, the bear was promptly enlisted in the 22nd Transport Division (Artillery Supply) of the Polish 2nd Army Corps.
Wojtek, which means - 'he who enjoys war' or 'smiling warrior' - became a popular figure, enjoying treats of beers and cigarettes given to him by soldiers.
Gentle giant: The 6ft-tall bear weighed 35 stone and 'fought' his way across Europe with Polish troops
Friendship: Private Wojtek and handler Peter Prendys will be memorialised in a statue to be put up in Edinburgh. The bear accompanied Polish soldiers during their march across the Middle East and Europe during the Second World War
Under the fire of Nazi guns and wading through a sea turning crimson with the blood of fallen colleagues, Bill Millin struggled towards the Normandy sands.
Waist deep in water, he led the commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade on to the beach as they fought to their deaths on the most famous day of World War II.
Amid the clatter of battle and dreadful cries of the injured, Millin only just caught the five words that turned him into a hero. 'Give us "Highland Laddie" man!' shouted Lord Lovat, the charismatic Chief of Clan Fraser and Brigadier of the 2,500 commandos, who was determined to put some backbone into his invading forces.
Piper Bill Millin played again on the Normandy beaches to celebrate the the 35th anniversary of the D-Day Landings
Churchill's daughter Lady Soames was among hundreds of people to mark the 70th Anniversary
Under a slate grey sky, the words of Winston Churchill rang defiantly around Westminster: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.'
It may be 70 years old, but the resounding call to arms during the Battle of Britain still stiffened the sinew bringing pride and not a few tears yesterday.
Churchill's famous address was delivered by actor Robert Hardy at 3.52pm - exactly the time they were originally spoken in Parliament by the wartime Prime Minister on August 20, 1940.
Kan speaks at a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo today, August 10, 2010 where he apologised for the suffering caused under Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologised today for Korea’s suffering under colonisation, despite concern the gesture could reignite calls for wartime compensation.
Kan is seeking to prevent ties with major trading partner South Korea from being dragged back into periodic disputes stemming from Japan’s often-brutal 1910-1945 colonisation of the peninsula and a territorial row over nearby islets.
Russian troops line up in perfect formation for the largest-ever post-Soviet military parade on Red Square
Vintage Soviet-era T-34 tank rumble through the square
Mr Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin watch the celebrations begin
A mobile launcher with a Topol-M missile travels along the route of the parade
British soldiers marched on Red Square in Moscow for the first time today to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Seventy-six soldiers from 2 Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards were representing the UK at the invitation of the Russian Government.
They marched alongside more than 10,500 Russian troops and others from the U.S. and France.
The event - thought to be costing £26 million - also featured a 1,000-strong military band, 161 tanks and missiles and 127 aircraft.
The hour-long parade saw six types of defence equipment on show in a display of military prowess set to dominate the city's sky and roads.
Guardsman Ian Mundy said: 'There is a sense of pride to be in this massive parade on Red Square.
'It seems that everyone is interested in us as well and I'm proud to be a part of that.'
Lance Corporal John Sanigar added: 'It's a brilliant place to be at the moment for the Army and the Welsh Guards.'The Welsh Guards are staying at the Moscow Military Academy as guests of the Russian Army.
The World War II Lockheed P38 Lightning buried under sand and waves on a Welsh beach, its location is being kept secret
A diver and experts examine the Lockheed P38 Lightning which crashed on a training exercise in 1942
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning as it would have looked, with a Spitfire flying alongside
It has been hidden under the the sands and waves since it crashed off the coast of Wales in 1942. But now this wreckage of a rare World War fighter plane may soon be back on dry land.
Described as 'one of the most important WWII finds in recent history', the location of the Lockheed P38 Lightning has been kept a secret to keep the amazing find safe.
Heritage of defiance: A Spitfire over the White Cliffs of Dover
For generations Dover has stood as an indomitable symbol of Britain’s freedom and independence.
The town, with its white cliffs, port and sprawling castle stood at the very edge of the nation’s frontier with the Continent.
But now part of that proud history is up for sale and the leading bidder is revealed as the former age-old enemy – France.
The Port of Dover is being recommended by Government advisers for sale to the French authorities.
It is one of a string of public assets which have been earmarked for privatisation as the Government battles with a record £830billion national debt.
The proposal for the port has prompted outrage.
Prospective Tory MP for Dover Charles Elphicke said: ‘It’s clear Gordon Brown has no sense of the history of our nation or the pride of our town.
‘How dare he consider selling it all off to the French? Dover is the English border. The people of Dover have a clear message for him – hands off our port, hands off the English border.’
sale of the Port of Dover, Europe’s busiest ferry port, could net up to £350million for the Treasury. Its harbour board applied to the Transport Secretary for voluntary privatisation last month.
The sale is expected to be rubber-stamped and the leading bidder has emerged as Nord-pas-de-Calais regional council, which also owns Calais.
The French port is just 21 miles away across the Channel and the sale would mark a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of the two towns. Calais was captured by the English under Edward III in 1347, and the occupation lasted for more than two centuries.
The Port of Dover is the largest British port still in the public sector and made a profit of £15.1million in 2008.
It is a ‘trust port’, meaning all revenues are reinvested into it, and it is now seeking £400million to expand. Bosses anticipate a doubling in freight traffic by 2040.
Chief executive Bob Goldfield said: ‘The time is right for the voluntary privatisation of Dover. We want to invest around £400million on a second terminal and need to invest in the existing terminal, but are unable to because of public sector borrowing constraints. We want to throw off the shackles.’
Other major ports were sold off under the 1991 Ports Act, but Dover was retained because of uncertainty over how construction of the Channel Tunnel might affect it.
Gwyn Prosser, the town’s Labour MP, warned that jobs could be lost. The port’s workforce has shrunk by 60 per cent over the past eight years.
Mr Prosser said: ‘This is a strategic asset and we must be careful about the import of foreign capital.’
iMussolini: Benito Mussolini in an undated photo. An iPhone app featuring the fascist dictator has become the second most popular app in Italy
Controversial: An image from the screen of an iPhone using the app. iPhone Italy says the app is a historical tool and not political commentary
An iPhone application containing 100 of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's speeches has become the second most downloaded item in Italy, it emerged today.
The application, called iMussolini, is available on Apple’s on line store for 79 euro cents (59p).
According to Italy' Apple iTunes store, it has been downloaded more than a hugely popular video game based on blockbuster film Avatar.
It is second only to an X-ray machine app that 'allows you to see your friends naked'.
Created by Luigi Marino, a 25-year-old businessman from Naples, the Mussolini application has jumped from 55 downloads a day to more than 1,000.
It contains speeches and video from 1914 before Mussolini came to power and on into 1938 at the height of his rule.
The application is illustrated with a traditional profile black and white photograph of il Duce with the words words 'iMussolini - the man who changed the history of our country.'
On the review page it adds:'After just three days in the Apple Store apps site iMussolini has reached second place in the top 100 paid for downloads.'
It adds that a 'new version is being prepared with all the content of the Fascist era,' calling the app 'an unmissable bargain'.
It also asks downloaders not to 'leave comments praising Fascism'.
Technically praising Fascism or making the Fascist straight-arm Roman salute is illegal in Italy.
But Mussolini's home town of Predappio has become a shrine to neo-Fascists with thousands of visitors every year.
Creator Mr Marino from Naples, who keeps 70 per cent of proceeds from downloads, said: 'I would like to thank all the numerous people who have downloaded the application but I would ask them not to post comments in praise of Fascism.
'This was a delicate phase of our history and the application offers people the chance to examine and listen for themselves to what Mussolini said. It is not an application that eulogises Fascism or Mussolini.
'I am amazed at the amount of downloads and I am aware that there have been complaints to Apple but as I say it is not an application in praise of Mussolini but simply a tool of history.'
When the application was launched iPhone's Italian website was inundated with comments both pro and against.
One said: 'At last, a serious application,' while another said: 'Numerous enemies. much honour.'
Negative comments included 'iPhone Italia should be ashamed of themselves', while another read: 'I can't believe it. I feel sick'.
Today iPhone Italia had closed the comments page down.
Instead it published a statement which read: 'The comments posted do no represent the views of iPhone Italia and any which expressed a political viewpoint have been removed.
'The application is not a political item but one of history and concerns a person who wrote an important page in our history.'
Flavio Arzarello, of the Young Italian Communists, said: 'We have written a letter to Apple in Milan asking them that this disgraceful application be removed at once.'
Today no-one was available for comment at Apple's Milan office.
Auschwitz survivors, Soviet veterans and leaders including Israeli Premier Benjamin
Netanyahu gathered on Wednesday for US President Barack Obama spoke of the "sacred duty to remember the cruelty" of Auschwitz and of "resisting anti-Semitism and ignorance in all its forms" in a video address aired at a forum organised by the European Jewish Congress (EJC) in Krakow, southern Poland, ahead of official afternoon ceremonies at the Auschwitz site.
"Auschwitz is the symbol of absolute evil that remains seared on the human conscience," French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in a message to Polish and European Jewish leaders at the Krakow forum and underscored France's commitment to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
"Like people, historical memory can disappear," EJC leader Moshe Kantor warned in a speech to some 700 participants in the "Let My People Live" forum.
"Our appreciation to you is timeless," he said, thanking Soviet Red Army veterans who liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.
Speaking after landing in Krakow on his way to the ceremonies, Netanyahu said, "The tragedy of the Jewish people had been that it was unable to identify danger in time and to defend itself.
"This situation has totally changed over the past 65 years. I am coming today as the prime minister of Israel. We are a nation that can defend itself and a nation capable of warming the rest of the world of danger,"
Netanyahu was to deliver a speech later Wednesday at the Auschwitz ceremony, due to start around 3 pm (1400 GMT), speaking after survivors and Poland's President Lech Kaczynski.
Tel Aviv's Polish-born Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a Holocaust orphan who survived as a child in Nazi camps, was to recite the Kaddish, or Jewish prayer of mourning.
Poland invited Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to attend, but he declined citing "other obligations", according to Warsaw.
The former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp has become an enduring reminder of Nazi German genocide during World War II which claimed the lives of six million European Jews.
In 2005 the United Nations declared January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A total of 1.1 million people perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau -- one million of them Jews from across occupied Europe -- mostly killed in gas chambers but also from shooting, hanging, starvation, disease, slave labour and pseudo-medical experiments.
Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor and Tel Aviv resident Baruch Shub, 85, said he still bore the emotional scars of his suffering.
"There's a lot of sorrow, because when I came home, I found nobody in my family alive. But also a bit of happiness because the war was over and I'd somehow stayed alive," Shub told AFP.
The Nazis initially set up Auschwitz to hold Polish political prisoners in 1940, a year after invading Poland. They chose a former barracks in the southern town of Oswiecim, Germanised as Auschwitz.
It became a site primarily for exterminating Jews -- viewed by the Nazis as sub-human -- from 1942 as it expanded to Birkenau, three kilometres (two miles) away.
In addition to Jews, and 70-75,000 non-Jewish Poles, the Nazis killed 21,000 Roma there, 15,000 Soviet POWs and 10-15,000 others, including resistance members arrested across Europe, according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
There were only around 7,000 survivors in the camp at the liberation. The Nazis had evacuated some 60,000 others only days earlier in the notorious "Death March" as they fled the Soviet advance.
With their numbers dwindling year by year, about 100 survivors were set to attend Wednesday's ceremony in sub-zero temperatures similar to the weather 65 years ago.
Only a handful of the liberators are still alive. Two, Ivan Martynushkin, 86, and Yakov Vinnochenko, 83, were scheduled to attend.
In Krakow, Martynushkin told AFP he was marked by that fateful day.
"We started meeting huddles of people. They came towards us, in prison stripes. Some had covers over their heads. We could only see their eyes. And in those eyes, we could see what they were feeling," he said.
"But we didn't know what it was. We only understood after the war," he added.
