Survivors gather at Auschwitz-Birkenau to remember the millions killed in the Holocaust on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp

Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz, ageing survivors and dignitaries gathered at the site synonymous with the Holocaust on Tuesday to honour victims and sound the alarm over a fresh wave of anti-Semitism.

On the eve of the landmark event, which is expected to draw several heads of state, a leading Jewish organisation was echoed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg in highlighting violence against Jews in modern-day Europe.

Europe is “close to” a new exodus of Jews, European Jewish Congress chief Moshe Kantor warned at a Holocaust forum in the Czech capital Prague.

Recalling his experiences at Auschwitz, survivor Zigi Shipper said: “they told them (the prisoners) were going into the showers, but of course there were no showers. It was a building and they packed them into that building, closed the door and then they killed them – they gassed them

“It just breaks my heart…I just cannot cope with it.”