Dan Michman, head of Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research, said in a statement that several short films aired at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum that were meant to give a summary of World War II "included a number of inaccuracies that resulted in a partial and unbalanced presentation of the historical facts."

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The January 23 event in Jerusalem was the largest gathering of its kind and hosted 45 world leaders, including Britain's Prince Charles, US Vice President Mike Pence, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Yad Vashem said the videos neglected to mention Poland's division between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 or Nazi Germany's conquest of Western Europe in 1940, showed incorrect borders of Poland and labeled concentration camps as extermination camps.

"We apologize for the unfortunate errors in these short films, which do not represent Yad Vashem's approach to the historical issues portrayed," the organization said in a statement.

January's memorial event, which marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, was beset by conflict over competing national narratives as Russia and Poland seek to leverage their interpretation of the past for contemporary political gains.

Putin has tried to downplay the Soviet Union's prewar pact with the Nazis to divide Poland, and shift responsibility for World War II's outbreak on Poland, which was invaded by Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union in 1939.

The president of Poland, which has tried to downplay its own complicity in the Holocaust, did not attend the event in Jerusalem in protest of Putin's central role in the event and his own exclusion from the podium.

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"This is a historic gathering, not only for Israel and the Jewish people but for all humanity. This evening as we remember the victims of the Holocaust, and World War II, we also mark the victory of freedom and human dignity," Rivlin said.

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"We pass on the memory of the Holocaust to the next generations. I hope and pray that from this room, the message will go out to every country on earth that the leaders of the world will stand united in the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and extremism, in defending democracy and democratic values. This is the call of our time. This is our challenge," he added. "This is our choice."

The president concluded by telling his guests: "Tomorrow we will gather at Yad Vashem to remember and to promise – never again. Yad Vashem is a leading center for Holocaust research and education, guided by historians. Historical research should be left to historians. The role of political leaders is to shape the future."

Harel Tubi, the director-general of the President's Residence, told Israel Hayom: "For the first time in the history of Israel and the presidential institution, 40 leaders have arrived from across the globe to unite around one message that is important to the Jewish people and the State of Israel, particularly amid the backdrop of the efforts in recent years to deny and erase the memory of the Holocaust.

"The President's Residence has never prepared for an event like this before. We're talking about 40 official state visits at the same time in terms of infrastructure, security, accommodation requirements and artistic program. Every detail in the artistic program is deeply related to the memory of the Holocaust," said Tubi.

The World Holocaust Forum is the brainchild of Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe. The group recently reported that 80% of European Jews feel unsafe in the continent.

Kantor established the World Holocaust Forum Foundation in 2005 and it has held forums before in Auschwitz, the Ukrainian killing fields of Babi Yar and at the former concentration camp Terezin. Thursday's event is the first time it is convening in Israel. The official commemoration marking the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation will be held next week at the site itself in southern Poland.

Tel Aviv University researchers reported last year that violent attacks against Jews grew significantly in 2018, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades. They recorded 400 cases, with the spike most dramatic in Western Europe. In Germany, for instance, there was a 70% increase in anti-Semitic violence. In addition to the shooting attacks, assaults and vandalism, the research also noted increased anti-Semitic vitriol online and in newspapers, as extremist political parties grew in power in several countries.

In advance of the forum, an anthology of statements from world leaders sending delegations to Jerusalem was published to project a newfound commitment to quelling a climate some said was reminiscent of that before World War II.

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In the project, dozens of Instagram video posts, in a special format known as "stories", show a cast in period costume and locations acting out passages from the diary of Eva Heyman, a 13-year-old Hungarian deported to her death in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.

The leaders will be active participants in the stories, sending the digital character online messages. This, organizers say, will help make the project even more widespread and help combat anti-Semitism. Their messages, which will address Eva and contemporary children, will include the pledge of "Never Again."

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