U.S. Wants Special U.N. Holocaust Session
.c The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The United States asked Friday for a special
session of the General Assembly in January to mark the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in World
War II.
In a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Ambassador John
Danforth requested that the proper steps be taken to convene a
commemorative session of the 191-member assembly.
Danforth said the gathering should be convened Jan. 24, 2005, three
days before a similar event in the former Auschwitz death camp in
Poland. Between 1 million and 1.5 million prisoners – most of them
Jews – perished in gas chambers or died of starvation and disease at
Auschwitz. Advancing Soviet troops liberated the camp Jan. 27, 1945.
“We believe that it is important that the United Nations, an
organization that rose out of the ashes World War II and the
Holocaust, mark this occasion in a manner fitting its historical
significance,” Danforth wrote.
“This is a unique opportunity for us all to remember and recommit to
the founding principles and noble ideals upon which the United Nations
was founded.”
The United Nations was founded Oct. 24, 1945.
12/10/04 23:45 EST