Spielberg Marks Holocaust at Auschwitz
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Award-winning director Steven Spielberg traveled to Poland to take part in 70th anniversary ceremonies marking the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps.
In an evening address before Tuesday's observance of International Holocaust Memorial Day, Spielberg warned about rising anti-Semitism worldwide.
The Oscar-winning director of the 1983 Holocaust film, "Schindler's List," spoke of the growing danger of "anti-Semites, radical extremists and religious fanatics" targeting Jews today, noting today some of them are using social media to track their targets.
Spielberg's Shoah Foundation joined a delegation of Hollywood executives, the Polish government, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum to bring about 100 elderly Holocaust survivors and their families to Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the death camp's liberation.
Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav, chairman of "Auschwitz: The Past Is Present Committee," led a leadership team composed of leading media and business executives.
Zaslav, whose family fled Poland before the Nazi reign of terror, admonished participants to "reflect and recognize" what took place at death camp, especially in view of rising anti-Israel and anti-Semitic groups.
"Auschwitz is the best example of what can happen when religious, racial and ethnic hatred is unbridled," Zaslav told Variety (ITALICS).
At Tuesday's ceremonies, the presidents of Germany and Austria and other world leaders will join some 300 elderly survivors to honor the memory of the 1.1 million killed at the camp during the Nazi reign.
The Soviet army liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.
