Auschwitz women's barracks

At former Nazi death camps and many other places worldwide - in Europe, Israel, the United States and the United Nations, among others - people remembered victims of the Holocaust on Sunday.

President Bush, who recently visited Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, called on Americans to honor the memory of millions of innocent civilians - most of them Jews - killed by the Nazi German regime during World War II. In a statement, the president says it is still important in the 21st Century to remember the Holocaust, and the dangers posed by totalitarian ideologies that embrace violence, hatred and bigotry.

The United Nations has declared January 27 to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The central observance took place Sunday in Auschwitz, the site in southern Poland where at least one million Jews died at the Nazis' largest concentration camp.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says it is not only a day to remember and mourn the dead, but also a time for ensuring that young people in all societies learn the importance of human-rights protections.

In Germany and Austria, where the Nazis first flourished, government officials acknowledged their nations' particular responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and discrimination.

Germany first proposed in 1996 that January 27 be designated to recall the Holocaust and honor its victims every year. The U.N. General Assembly eventually approved the date for International Holocaust Remembrance Day in late 2005, so this year marks the third time the international community has marked the solemn anniversary.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.