Jan 18, 2007, 18:40 GMT
Budapest - Hungarian Jews on Thursday marked the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto with a service in Europe's largest synagogue.
Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky and Economy Minister Janos Koka were amongst those who attended the service in the Dohany Street synagogue, which sits at the edge of the area that served as the ghetto during the Second World War.
'We are grateful to those whom we owe our freedom and mourn those who did not live to see this day,' MTI news agency reported retired Chief Rabbi Jozsef Schweitzer as saying at the ceremony.
Soviet troops liberated the ghetto on January 18, 1945, releasing around 70,000 Jews from their captivity in appalling conditions in the middle of downtown Budapest.
Approximately 30,000-40,000 Jews survived outside of the ghetto, kept safe with the help of foreign diplomats and ordinary citizens.
Around half of the 200,000 Jews living in Budapest prior to the outbreak of war perished during the conflict, many of the sent to concentration camps or lined up on the banks of the Danube and shot.
Over 400,000 Jews were sent to death camps from Hungary in 1944, mainly from other towns and villages.
Much of the butchery was carried out under the direction of Nazi-aligned Hungarian Arrow Cross Party.
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