German, Israeli foreign ministers commemorate Holocaust in Berlin

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday joined Germany's top diplomat at Berlin's Holocaust memorial to commemorate the six million Jews killed by the Nazi regime across Europe.

"The fight against anti-Semitism, standing up for Jewish life in Germany and the commitment to the security and peaceful future of the state of Israel is and will remain our obligation," Wadephul said as he laid a wreath at the memorial in central Berlin with Saar.

The memorial "reminds us Germans to remember the victims, to honour the survivors and to learn the lessons from the crimes against humanity of the Shoah," said the German minister.

For his part, Saar said that 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, "the lessons seem to have been forgotten."

"In Germany, there's an anti-Semitic incident once every hour," said Saar, referring to a report published by a monitor on Wednesday.

Wadephul said he was "deeply" ashamed that the number of anti-Semitic offences in Germany has reached a new high, that Jewish residents no longer feel safe in the country and that they are advising their children not to speak Hebrew on the street.

"And that is why the federal government will oppose all forms of anti-Semitism with clarity, rigour and consistency," he added.