(CNN) World leaders commemorated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by warning against a global rise in anti-Semitism. The dignitaries gathered at the Yad Vashem Remembrance Center Thursday for the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem. Israel's President Reuven Rivlin opened proceedings by calling anti-Semitism and racism a "malignant disease" that attacks people, their states and countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Prince Charles, US Vice President Mike Pence and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed Rivlin in denouncing hatred, as well as making some political points of their own. "Today we remember what happens when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer," Pence told the audience.

Source: CNN January 23, 2020 20:37 UTC