Our past obliges us to be watchful for even the slightest sign of anti-Semitism, racism or attacks on the dignity of the individual

German President Johannes Rau

The memorial events aimed to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten.

Flags lowered

In Germany, where the annual 'Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism', was first marked in 1996, a ceremony was held at the site of the future Holocaust memorial in the heart of the capital Berlin.

Former inmate Anna Stachowiak wipes away a tear at the ceremony

In the evening, anti-racism campaigners lit thousands of candles across the city.

Tributes to the victims of the Holocaust were visible throughout the country, with flags flying at half-mast on public buildings

Germany's President, Johannes Rau, said the full force of the law should be brought to bear on the tiny minority of Germans who still cling to racist views and who are blamed for an alarming escalation in attacks against immigrants and Jews living in Germany.

He also appealed to German industry to make up the shortfall in $4.6bn fund that is being raised to compensate around a million survivors of the Nazi's extermination and slave labour camps.

British controversy

The Holocaust memorial day in Britain also recognised other mass killings, including those in Cambodia and Rwanda.

The day will put a particular emphasis on educating people of all ages about the lessons to be learnt from genocide

British Home Secretary Jack Straw

There has been considerable debate in Britain over how closely the day should focus on the Nazi Holocaust.

Many people have said that it should also include commemorations of the disputed massacres of Armenians in Turkey during World War I, which many Armenians regard as genocide.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined religious and political leaders and well-known personalities at a church ceremony in London.

Holocaust Memorial Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

In Sweden, Prime Minister Goeran Persson was due to attend a ceremony at a Stockholm synagogue. Women who survived Nazi concentration camps were expected to talk about their ordeals at a public forum.

Italy marked its Holocaust Memorial Day with a ceremony in Milan and a minute's silence.

The country started its commemoration on Friday, when a Jewish section was added to a small museum in Rome dedicated to the city's liberation from nine months of occupation by German troops during World War II.

The new permanent exhibition includes a video of interviews with seven Italian Holocaust survivors.

Culture Minister Giovanna Melandri said the new Holocaust section was intended to remind Italians "of the banality of evil."