Young people from all over the world, former inmates and former Soviet soldiers, as well as numerous world leaders, including Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, gathered at the forum organised by the European Jewish Congress, the Yad Vashem memorial centre from Jerusalem and the Polish Culture Ministry.
Addressing the present, Israeli President Moshe Katsav criticised the allies from World War II for allowing the Holocaust to happen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the participants to think about the horrible lesson of the Holocaust and warned that the seeds of racism and xenophobia existed in the world today, even in Russia,
Ukrainian President Victor Juschenko said at the forum that antisemitism would never again exist in his country.
The central ceremony of marking the Auschwitz liberation will be held later today in Auschwitz, some 50 kilometres from Krakow.
More than 1.5 million children, women and men, mostly Jews were killed in the Nazi death camp. Also killed were Poles, the Roma and prisoners of war.