Survivors pay tribute to those who died in Nazi concentration camps

Hundreds of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen have marked the 60th anniversary of their liberation by Allied forces with ceremonies across Germany.

Hundreds of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen have marked the 60th anniversary of their liberation by Allied forces with ceremonies across Germany.

At Belsen yesterday, where an estimated 70,000 people died, mostly Jewish,ceremonies were held after more than 150 former inmates marked the camp's liberation on Friday.

Paul Spiegel, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, used the occasion to warn of a rise of right-wing extremism in Germany.

At Ravensbrück, north of Berlin, the Nazis' camp for women and children, about 500 survivors gathered to remember those who perished. The camp was liberated by the Red Army on 30 April 1945.

Similar ceremonies were held at the site of Sachsenhausen camp, north of Berlin, which was liberated by the Russians on 22 April 1945. The camp was among the Nazis' first, and was designed to "re-educate" German opponents of the Nazis with a regime of humiliation, beating and terror.