As we mark today the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Red Army troops, it behooves us all to hear the words currently echoing through the Duma, or lower house of the Russian Parliament:

Jews provoke anti-Semitism. All Jewish organizations are extremist and should be banned. The entire democratic world is under the financial and political control of the Jews. Jews stage attacks against their own community as a provocation so they can blame others. And so on.

Those stomach-turning proclamations were part of a letter sent Jan. 13 to the prosecutor general by 20 Duma members. Granted, it´s 20 out of 450 and the letter has been withdrawn, but the very fact that those assertions were made in an official context rings as a warning that virulent and dangerous anti-Semitism lives on.

There are still many who would deny the Holocaust, and today´s gathering of world leaders at the death camp in Poland will likely do little to dissuade them. The deniers refuse to see, and so they will not see. Many others simply hate, with the young particularly vulnerable to being infected by anti-Semitism.

A U.S. State Department report released this month made clear that the lessons of Auschwitz must be handed down through the generations. Far too many, particularly in Europe, have little or no grasp of the horrors of the Holocaust. They care even less about educating themselves, and their governments are not especially perturbed by ignorance that gives way to intolerance. Example: In Norway, Jews who displayed Stars of David or the Israeli flag were barred from Kristallnacht commemorations. How´s that for cruel irony?

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder issued a warning. "The evil of Nazi ideology did not come from nowhere," he said. "Nazi ideology was desired by people and man-made."

The people who desired and made it share responsibility for the 1.5 million prisoners - most of them Jews - murdered at Auschwitz. When that camp and the others were liberated and the world stood witness, the obscenities of the Nazi regime seemed almost inconceivable. But they were real. Now, 60 years later, an abominable number of people are spreading, or willing to accept, loathsome prejudice. And righteous men and women must stand together with one common thought: "Never again!" Never. No matter what it takes. (© 2005 Daily News, L.P. 01/27/05)