PARIS-OSWIECIM (AFP-EJP)---French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday pledged French support for Holocaust remembrance in a message released on the 65th anniversary of the Red Army's liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.   

"Auschwitz is the symbol of absolute evil that remains seared on the human conscience," Sarkozy wrote in a message to Polish and European Jewish leaders.   

The commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz is an opportunity to mobilise against racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance, he added.   

"Rest assured that France will pursue its commitment to all initiatives and projects designed to promote remembrance of the Jewish Holocaust and of all civilian and military victims who were savagely murdered in the Nazi camps," he said.   

Auschwitz survivor Simone Veil, a former minister and the first woman to head the European parliament, visited Wednesday the former concentration camp. She was accompanied by Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of Jewish organizations in France, and Jewish singer Enrico Macias. 

France is home to Western Europe's biggest Jewish community.