JERUSALEM — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called for vigilance “not to miss when the first sprouts of hatred, of chauvinism, of xenophobia and anti-Semitism start to rear their ugly head.”

Prince Charles warned that hatred and intolerance “still lurk in the human heart, still tell new lies, still adopt new disguises and still seek new victims.”

And Vice President Mike Pence urged world leaders to “stand strong” against Iran — “the one government in the world that denies the Holocaust as a matter of policy and threatens to wipe Israel off the map.”

As dignitaries from scores of western nations met in Jerusalem to remember the liberation of Auschwitz 75 years ago and express their resolve to combat anti-Semitism, the invocations of the past were as often aimed at scoring present-day geopolitical points as at sounding the alarm about a resurgence of bigotry and anti-Jewish violence.