New York, NY, June 5, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said that the visit and comments by President Barack Obama at the Buchenwald concentration camp served the two important purposes of showing what the teaching of hate can lead to, and bearing witness to the awful reality of the Holocaust.

"As fewer and fewer survivors remain, it becomes terribly important for a President of the United States to speak as Mr. Obama did on the scene of the annihilation of the Jews," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. 

"The image of the president standing at Buchenwald with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel sends a powerful message about the importance of remembrance, about the commitment to stand against evil, and to fight against genocide wherever it appears."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.