ZAGREB JEWS COMMEMORATE AUSCHWITZ LIBERATION

ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Hina) - The Zagreb Jewish community today held a meeting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where Nazis had killed 1.5 million people of whom 1.2 million were Jews. The commemoration ceremony was sponsored by the Zagreb Jewish community and the Polish Embassy in Croatia. Jewish community president Ognjen Kraus said Nazi ideologists had set up concentration camps to "finally solve the Jewish question". "The exact number of Auschwitz victims would never be known", Kraus said, adding that in the last stage of the Second World War the Nazis destroyed evidence of their "industry of mass killings." Polish Ambassador Wieslaw Wlkiewicz said he was deeply moved by the presence of Auschwitz survivors at the commemoration ceremony. Walkiewicz said Auschwitz obliged all people to stand up for the right to live. Israeli religious teacher Mose Mesulam prayed for six million Jews killed during World War II. Besides Jewish community representatives and members of the diplomatic corps in Croatia, led by Msgr. Giulio Einaudi, the meeting also included Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, Croatian Parliament members and representatives of Croatian political parties. (Hina) mm rv vm 021957 MET feb 95