Cate McCurry. Irish News. Belfast. Monday, January, 28, 3019

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has warned of a rise in anti-Semitism and racism across Europe at an event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The president also spoke of the surge of extreme right-wing parties in many countries.

Speaking at the National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Dublin’s Mansion House, president Higgins urged people to work together to ensure hatred does not spread.

Ceremonies are being held across the world to remember the six million Jews and others killed in Hitler’s death camps.

The event marks the date when the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland were liberated by Soviet forces on January 27, 1945.

Also attending the event were Holocaust survivors Suzi Diamond, Tomi Reichental and Walter Sekules, as well as Jadzia Kaminska, who represented her father Jan Kaminski.

Mr. Higgins said: “Following World War Two, nations around the globe resolved to ensure the horrors wrought by two world wars would never reoccur.

“As anti-Semitism and racism once again begin to rise across Europe we must remember the Holocaust collectively and work together to ensure that hatred and inhumanity is not allowed to once again spread its dark