The first minister was speaking at a memorial event in Hamilton

The first minister was speaking at an exhibition in Hamilton, one of several events across the UK commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day.

A recent BBC poll found that 60% of under-35s had never heard of Auschwitz.

"Even today, Auschwitz is a permanent reminder of the horror and suffering of the Holocaust," Mr McConnell said.

Permanent reminder

"In that terrible place, more than any other, we saw the true scale of the massacre of innocent people which was such a scar on the history of the twentieth century.

"Sixty years on from the liberation of the camp, we remember the millions who lost their lives. The evil that took place during the Holocaust and at camps like Auschwitz must never be forgotten.

The evil that took place during the Holocaust and at camps like Auschwitz must never be forgotten Jack McConnell, First Minister

"Tonight, with young Scots who will carry the memory on to future generations, we remember the horror and we renew that pledge."

His words were echoed by John Ogilvie High School pupil Laura Ann Teece, who told guests: "Let us, people of all faiths and none, reaffirm our commitment to end racism and brutality."

Elsewhere in Scotland, a Holocaust Memorial Book has been opened in Aberdeen's Town House, while Glasgow University was staging a lecture by Professor Richard Overy, of King's College, London, entitled Making a Killing: the Economics of the Holocaust.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh held a special reception in St James' Palace in London for British survivors of the Holocaust and veterans who helped liberate the camps at the end of the Second World War.

The Queen met Holocaust survivors at a reception in London

The Queen was leading survivors in lighting the first of 60 memorial candles in the Hall - using a flame lit from the eternal flame of remembrance which burns at the Belsen camp.

One survivor, Martha Grunwald, who was also celebrating her 85th birthday, said she spent four months in Auschwitz and lost three members of her family there.

She said: "We arrived at night. It was just a terrible noise when they unloaded the people from the lorry.

"They shouted 'raus, raus, raus!' ['Get out!'], and that's when I saw my father for the last time."

'Final solution'

A million Jews died in Auschwitz, the Nazi German death camp in occupied Poland which has become synonymous with the worst excesses of the Nazi regime.

On Thursday, it was at the centre of events to remember the six million Jews who perished across Europe in the Nazis' pursuit of the infamous "final solution".

The smell was so bad you couldn't stay in there for more than five minutes Anatoly Shapiro former Soviet soldier

Survivors of the concentration camps braved sub-zero conditions to join dignitaries from 30 countries, including Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, who represented the Queen, for an outdoor ceremony.

A Soviet Red Army officer attending the ceremony, Anatoly Shapiro, told the BBC of the horror that the camp inspired in his men before they set about washing and feeding the survivors.

Mr Shapiro, now 92, said: "Just behind the door, we saw naked women's bodies piled up. There was blood everywhere. The smell was so bad you couldn't stay in there for more than five minutes."

The president of Scotland's oldest synagogue, the 125-year-old establishment at Garnethill in Glasgow, said remembering Auschwitz was as important today as ever.