LONDON: The secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL) led a delegation of Muslim leaders on an interfaith visit to Auschwitz on Thursday.
The visit was part of commemorations for the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation from the Nazis.
Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa addressed Muslim leaders and delegates from the US Jewish group the American Jewish Committee (AJC) at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland.
“To be here, among the children of Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish and Islamic communities, is both a sacred duty and a profound honor," Al-Issa said.
“The unconscionable crimes to which we bear witness today are truly crimes against humanity. That is to say, a violation of us all, an affront to all of God’s children.”
Al-Issa and the CEO of the AJC David Harris led the tour to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial.
Harris said the visit led by Al-Issa was the “most senior Islamic leadership delegation to ever visit Auschwitz or any Nazi German death camp.”
The AJC said that Al-Issa led a delegation of 62 Muslims, including 25 prominent religious leaders, from some 28 countries during the visit.
The interfaith visit came four days before the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945, and as world leaders gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the Holocaust.
The Nazis operated extermination and concentration camps in Poland when Germany occupied the country during World War II.
Al-Issa also led prayers next to the memorial monument honouring the more than one million people - mostly European Jews -that Nazi Germany killed at Auschwitz.
The Jewish group’s delegation included children of Holocaust survivors.