German Chancellor Angela Merkel (1st R) and German President Joachim Gauck (2nd R) looks at Daniil Granin (2nd L), a 95-year-old Russian survivor of World War II, during a memorial session at Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, in Berlin, capital of Germany, on Jan. 27, 2013. The German parliament held ceremonies on Monday to recall victims of Nazi siege of Leningrad and those killed at the death camp Auschwitz during World War II on international Holocaust Memorial Day. (Xinhua/Zhang Fan)
BERLIN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The German parliament held ceremonies on Monday to recall victims of Nazi siege of Leningrad and those killed at the death camp Auschwitz during World War II on international Holocaust Memorial Day.
Parliamentary President Norbert Lammert remembered in his opening remarks the loss of life under Nazi regime, including the 1 million deaths in the siege of Leningrad and the millions who perished in the Holocaust.
German President Joachim Gauck led the country's lawmakers in a moment of silence to honor the victims of Nazism. Chancellor Angela Merkel also attended the observances.
Daniil Granin, a 95-year-old Russian survivor, who was transported to Auschwitz in 1944 after surviving the siege of Leningrad, now the Russian city of St. Petersburg, gave a keynote speech to the parliament on how thousands of people died of starvation every day during the Nazi blockade.
Monday's commemorations came 70 years after the siege of Leningrad was finally broken. Gauck had written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad, according to media reports.
During World War II, over 6 million people perished in concentration camps from forced labor, starvation, disease or extermination. The majority of the victims were Jews.
In 1996, former German President Roman Herzog proclaimed Jan. 27 the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism in an effort to stress the importance of vigiliance toward intolerance and hate.
The date was chosen for its significance in Holocaust history. On Jan. 27 in 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp in Poland where over one million people were killed.
In 2005, The United Nations designated the same day as the international Holocaust Memorial Day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
