The largest ever Knesset delegation to leave Israel has toured Auschwitz-Birkenau to mark the 69th anniversary of the Nazi German death camp's liberation and honour the dwindling number of survivors.
The 55 members of the Israeli parliament walked through the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" wrought-iron gate of the camp, which the Nazis set up in the southern city of Oswiecim after occupying Poland in World War II.
"We have a survivor dying every hour in Israel and elsewhere. It's so crucial to honour them before it's too late," said London-born Israeli Jonny Daniels, who organised the Knesset's visit.
The 28-year-old also told AFP it was "symbolic" to have so many Israeli government representatives there to hammer home the point that Jews now have a "place of our own".
The Knesset delegation, led by opposition leader Isaac Herzog and coalition chairman Yariv Levin of the governing Likud party, took part in anniversary ceremonies on Monday - International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Camp survivors were also joined by parliamentarians from several European countries, the US and Canada.
"We came from the land of life to the place of evil, the place of death, the worst place on earth. We have come in your footsteps," Herzog said at the ceremony, addressing the victims.
Holocaust survivors earlier laid wreaths at the death wall where inmates were shot, with many wearing blue-and-white scarves evoking their prisoner garb.
Survivor Jacek Zieliniewicz, an 87-year-old who returns every year, told AFP that standing at the spot "one remembers those one lost here: friends, acquaintances and strangers too".
Zieliniewicz, who spent a year at the camp and credits luck and youthful vigour for his survival, says he regularly speaks at schools with words of warning.
"I tell the young folks that I'm counting on them to be smart enough and determined enough to never allow another such massacre to occur," he said.
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