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Islamic leaders make ‘groundbreaking’ visit to Auschwitz

Posted at 8:47 PM, Jan 23, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-23 20:47:20-05

A delegation of Muslim religious leaders has visited Auschwitz along with members of an American Jewish group.

Organizers said the Muslim participants made up “the most senior Islamic leadership delegation” ever to visit the site of a Nazi German death camp.

The interfaith visit on Thursday came four days before the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by Soviet forces.

It was co-led by the secretary general of the Muslim World League, who called it “both a sacred duty and a profound honor.”

A delegation of Muslim religious leaders perform prayers during a visit to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, in what organizers called “the most senior Islamic leadership delegation” to visit, in Oswiecim, Poland on Thursday Jan. 23, 2020. The interfaith visit by Muslim and Jewish delegates comes on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, just days before the 75th anniversary of the Jan. 27, 1945, liberation of the death camp by Soviet forces. (American Jewish Committee via AP)

The 62-member Muslim delegation included 25 prominent religious leaders from more than two dozen countries.

Children of Holocaust survivors were among the members of the American Jewish Committee who joined them.