Equipo Nizkor - Putin: Nazis' European accomplices were often 'crueler than their masters'.

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem on Thursday to mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and vowing to confront current manifestations of anti-Semitism.

Addressing the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem were representatives of the Allied powers that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II -- the United States, Britain, Soviet Union and France.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Holocaust "one of the most terrible chapters of human history" and said remembering it "is our shared responsibility to the past and the future."

The crimes committed by the Nazis, their deliberate, planned, and as they said, 'final solution to the Jewish issue,' is one of the darkest and most shameful pages of modern world history," he said.

"But we should not forget that this crime also had accomplices. They were often crueler than their masters. Death factories and concentration camps were served not only by the Nazis, but also by their accomplices in many European countries."

Those remarks appeared aimed largely at Russia's Cold War-era satellites, including Poland, whose President Andrzej Duda stayed away from Jerusalem after being denied the right to address the event.

Addressing the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem were representatives of the Allied powers that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II -- the United States, Britain, Soviet Union and France.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Holocaust "one of the most terrible chapters of human history" and said remembering it "is our shared responsibility to the past and the future."

"The crimes committed by the Nazis, their deliberate, planned, and as they said, 'final solution to the Jewish issue,' is one of the darkest and most shameful pages of modern world history," he said.

Those remarks appeared aimed largely at Russia's Cold War-era satellites, including Poland, whose President Andrzej Duda stayed away from Jerusalem after being denied the right to address the event.

Last month, Putin provoked an outcry after he made the claim that Poland had colluded with Adolf Hitler and contributed to the outbreak of World War II.

Poland, which sees Moscow as rewriting history and ignoring its own 1939 non-aggression pact with Hitler, has urged Putin "not to use the memory of the victims of the Holocaust for political games."

In his speech, Putin said the Soviet Union "paid the highest price, more than any other. Twenty-seven million Russians were killed. That is the price of victory."

He claimed 40 percent of Jewish Holocaust victims were Soviet citizens, a figure contested by historians. He said the Red Army, which liberated many of the Nazi death camps, had "put an end to these crimes."

Of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, historians say about one million were Soviet. Putin's controversial figure appears to include an additional 1.5 million Jewish victims from Eastern European areas occupied by the Soviets under their prewar pact with the Nazis.

"We need to find the courage not just to speak about anti-Semitism but also to do everything in our power to protect Jews," he said.

Speaking after Putin was US Vice President Mike Pence.

"Today, we pause to remember what President Donald Trump rightly called 'the dark stain on human history,'" he said. "Today we remember what happens when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer."

Pence recalled his visit last year to Auschwitz, where over a million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

"One cannot walk the grounds of Auschwitz without being overcome with emotion and grief. One cannot see the piles of shoes, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, the lone box car facing the gates of the camp… without asking, 'How could they?'" he said.

he gathering in Jerusalem was not only to "remember the names and the faces and the promise of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust," Pence said, but also to honor the Jews who survived and those who gave them assistance.

"We pay tribute to the memory of those non-Jewish heroes who saved countless lives. Those the people of Israel call the Righteous Among the Nations… in an age of fear, they showed courage," he said.

Pence called for the world to unite against growing anti-Semitism around the globe, singling out Iran.

"In that same spirit, we must also stand strong against the leading state purveyor of anti-Semitism. The one government in the world that denies the Holocaust as a matter of state policy and calls to wipe Israel off the map," he said.

"The world must stand strong against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

He also hailed Israel as a testament to "the faith and resilience of the Jewish people," noting its founding came after the Holocaust.

"I'm proud to say as vice president of the United States that the American people have been with you every step of the way since 1948. And so we will remain," Pence said.

The US vice president said those at Thursday's ceremony were not only commemorating the Holocaust but also marking the "triumph of freedom… a people restored to their rightful place among the nations of the earth."