International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2014: Obama Honors Lives Lost, Survivors Meet at Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial

President Barack Obama urged the U.S. and the world to pause today to remember the 11 million lives lost in the Holocaust in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

According to USA Today, Obama released a statement about the commemoration of one of history's biggest tragedies. 

"Each year on this day the world comes together to commemorate a barbaric crime unique in human history," Obama said in a statement. "We recall six million Jews and millions of other innocent victims who were murdered in Nazi death camps. We mourn lives cut short and communities torn apart."

Obama also noted that Jan. 27 is the date on which Auschwitz was liberated 69 years ago. 

"The noble acts of courage performed by liberators, rescuers, and the Righteous Among Nations remind us that we are never powerless," Obama said. "In our lives, we always have choices. In our time, this means choosing to confront bigotry and hatred in all of its forms, especially anti-Semitism."

Obama also said people should denounce "any attempts to deny the occurrence of the Holocaust," and "doing our part to ensure that survivors receive some measure of justice and the support they need to live out their lives in dignity."

The rest of Obama's statement read: 

"On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Michelle and I join the American people and our friends in the State of Israel and around the world as we reaffirm our obligation not just to bear witness, but to act.

"May God bless the memory of the millions, and may God grant us the strength and courage to make real our solemn vow: Never forget. Never again."

Auschwitz survivors and Israeli official marked the liberation of the Nazi death camp with a ceremony today at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial, the Associated Press reports. 

Around 20 survivors laid a wreath at the former concentration camp's Death Wall, where inmates were executed. Some 60 members of the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, also took part in the ceremony.