Austria holds annual Mauthausen concentration camp memorial

VIENNA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Austria commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp on Sunday, with 7,000 people including national leaders attending the memorial service.

The service held at the former site of the camp in the state of Upper Austria, this year had the motto "Internationality connects."

Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen, Chancellor Christian Kern, and a number of senior officials went to the site to represent the government.

In a press statement, Van der Bellen said one must "work together for a world in which human rights, freedom and respect are ensured."

He further denounced nationalism as a "violation of the dignity of humans," and said that a rejection of all that is foreign "does not solve a single problem," but rather "creates new ones."

Kern also stated via a press release that the "commemoration is our obligation," and rejected "nationalism, chauvinism, and racism."

These are "showing their ugly grimaces again today," he added, and said they must be opposed "with our strongest weapons."