text: Holocaust survivors have gathered at the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to commemorate the anniversary of its liberation. More than 72,000 camp inmates and prisoners of war died at the Nazi camp including diarist Anne Frank and her older sister Margot. British soldiers liberated the camp on April 15, 1945. Today, seventy years on, hundreds of people sobbed as they laid flowers and flags as memorials. Scroll down for video . Survivor Marie Vaislic from France sits on a mass grave reading '1000 dead rest here' after the ceremony. It was held to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany . Officials also attended the ceremony including Joachim Gauck, the German president, who said the British soldiers were 'ambassadors of a democratic culture who were not looking for revenge'. He added: 'We commit ourselves to the obligation of never denying these crimes and of preserving the memories of the victims.' Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, also attended the memorial. He told an audience: 'Right now, we stand on one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world. But there are no gravestones, there are no markers. An elderly woman covers her mouth in disbelief as she looks at the mourning wall at the former concentration camp, where more than 72,000 camp inmates and prisoners of war died . Red and white roses, yellow tulips and stones lay on and in front of the gravestone of diarist Anne Frank and her older sister Margot . Women and men mourn as wreaths of blue, white, red and yellow flowers are laid on the memorial. British soldiers took over the camp on April 15, 1945 . Joachim Gauck, the German president pictured (above) during the ceremony, said the British soldiers who liberated the camp were 'ambassadors of a democratic culture' 'The victims buried here lost not just their lives; the Nazis took their identities as well.' Lauder also warned that anti-Semitism is on the rise again in Europe, 70 years after the end of the Holocaust. 'Today, 70 years after this camp was liberated, we hear the same anti-Semitic lies. 'Today, a Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke cannot walk down the street in Paris or London or Copenhagen without fearing for his life.' Anne Frank's diary recounts how her family went into hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands during the Second World War. It became a bestseller when it was published at the end of the war. The book documents how Anne, her sister Margot and her family went into hiding in a canal house. They were eventually betrayed and sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she and her sister died. After the war the Dutch government set the official date of Anne's death as March 31, based on survivors accounts stating that the girls died sometime in March. But some accounts suggest that she might have died in the middle of February - just two months before British soldiers liberated the camp. It is likely she caught typhus, which was rife in the overcrowded camp. Her sister Margot also passed away and experts think she too had the disease. Their grave, which reads Margot Frank 1926 - 1945 and Anne Frank 1929 - 1945, is a poignant memorial that still stands where the Nazi camp used to be. Red and white roses, yellow tulips and stones were laid carefully around the grave earlier today. Anne Frank, pictured with her sister Margot, before they were moved to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in World War Two . Survivor Maria Gniatczyk, Mr Gauck and the Duke of Gloucester (left to right) listen to a survivor's speech during the ceremony . A man in a wheelchair arrives with a wreath as others sheltering from the drizzle under umbrellas walk to the memorial . Members of the British Army, dressed in full uniform, attend the ceremony and listen to one of the speeches with their arms folded behind them . Some of the survivors brought small, colourful bunches of flowers and laid them on plaques on the ground alongside other tributes . Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, also attended the memorial and gave a speech where he said 70 years on 'we hear the same anti-Semitic lies' Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (right), walks behind two girls dressed in black and carrying a huge bunch of white flowers . British soldiers freed around 60,000 prisoners but discovered tens of thousands of bodies of people who had died from extreme overcrowding, disease and starvation. Typhus, which Miss Frank is thought to have died from, was particularly rife. Ceremonies have been held across Germany and Poland throughout the spring marking the advance of Allied troops as Nazi Germany neared defeat. They are even more poignant this year because of the dwindling number of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews by the regime of Adolf Hitler. Ceremonies were also taking place today at the former Flossenbürg camp in southern Germany, where around 30,000 people died between 1938 and 1945. Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande visited  the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp during a service to mark the French National Deportation Day in Natzweiler, eastern France. Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande (centre) visited the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp during a service to mark the French National Deportation Day in Natzweiler, eastern France . French junior minister for European affairs Harlem Desir (left), European Council president Donald Tusk (second left), Mr Hollande (centre) and Latvian prime minister Laimdota Straujuma (fourth from right) visit the World War Two site . Thee survivors of the former Nazi camp - adorned with medals and wearing blue, white and red - listen to the ceremony . Martin Schulz (left), European parliament president, and Mr Hollande (right) stand in the gas chamber at the former concentration camp .
target: Around 200,000 people were deported to the Nazi camp in northern Germany during World War Two .
  British soldiers took over the camp on April 15, 1945 and found tens of thousands of dead bodies .
  Their intervention came just two months after diarist Anne Frank, who was held at the camp, died .