UN chief visits Auschwitz concentration camp

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon Monday called on the international community to build "a world of peace, justice, equality and human dignity for all", as he visited Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, a UN spokesperson said.

Ban said that Auschwitz is not simply a register of atrocities, it is also a repository of courage and hope, reported Xinhua citing the acting UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq here at a daily briefing.

"In this haunting silence, we see the remnants of human life, we hear the cry of history and humanity. And through all of this, it becomes ever more clear that every life is precious. Every person matters," Ban said.

He said that nothing can truly prepare a person for a visit to what he called "the epicentre of evil, where systematic murder unique in human history reached its atrocious climax."

"For our shared future, we must embrace our common duty as members of the human family to build a world of peace, justice and human dignity for all," said Ban, who also stressed the need to remember genocide ever committed.

According to the spokesperson, the secretary-general's visit to the notorious former Nazi death camp, where millions of Jews and members of other minorities perished during the World War II, came following a trip to the Baltic states and on his way to Warsaw, the capital of Poland, to attend the UN climate change conference there.