Adress: 115035, Russia, Moscow,
Sadovnicheskaya St. 52/45
The Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center and the Holocaust Foundation
(map). Phone/fax: (499) 995-21-82, (495) 953-33-62 E-mail:center@holofond.ru
January 29th-31st 2009. The Conference under this topic was organized in St. Petersburg by the Russian Research and Educational “Holocast” Center as by the State-Universitiy “Herzen” in St. Petersburg. On 29th the Conference was opened and during the event the new Russian version of the book “Anti-Semitism: reasons for hatred” was presented by a member of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the UNESCO. Alla Gerber, Dr Ilya Altman and members of the University took part on the opening as well.
On the conference, Russian students from Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as Members of the Russian Research and Educational “Holocaust” Center had speeches about the Holocaust and about the blockade of Leningrad.
After the conference the students visited the head of the Organization for Ghetto-Survivors in St. Petersburg, Pavel Rubinchik and the exhibition-room of the organization. On the following days they visited a school near St. Petersburg to take part on a conference on the topic “Holocaust”, which was a part of a project, the school worked on. Due to that the students talked to members of the Jewish community in St. Petersburg and visited the library of the community.
January, 27th 2009. Because of this event, there was a memorial evening in the House of Literature in Moscow. The Evening was organized by the Russian Research and Educational Center, the Embassy of the State of Israel and other Jewish organizations in Moscow.
Next to a deputy of the ministry of foreign affairs the head of the Russian Holocaust Center, Alla Gerber spoke about the tragedy of the 20th century, about the fact, that the world kept silent while millions of people lost their lives and that it should always be remembered.
The ambassador of Israel, Anna Asari read excerpts of the book of Lizzie Doron. In this book Doron writes about her mother, a survivor of the holocaust. Asari dedicated a special part of her speech to the Righteous among the Nations.
Furthermore, a deputy of the German Embassy held a speech and underlined the position of Germany. “We definitely stand against any kind of Anti-Semitism or Holocaust-denying. We will go on campaigning the aim, that every Jew should have the opportunity to live a life in peace in Israel. My country will go on speaking up against any kind of suppression or Racism.”
In the end of the event there was the award ceremony for the 7th international competition for pupils and students under the topic “lessons from the Holocaust – ways to tolerance”. The ceremony was accompanied by a member of the UNESCO as well as a member of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The winners of the competition will present their works in Paris at the UNESCO this year.
2008 was an important landmark for the effort of
preserving the memory of the Holocaust in Russia. The commemoration of the 70th
anniversary of the Crystal Night has evoked a broad public response in the
country.
Russia’s new
president, Dmitry Medvedev, addressed the memorial evening/requiem and
international conference devoted to this event - Lessons of the Holocaust and
Modern Russia - that was organized with the active participation of the
Holocaust Center. This was the first in the 21st century message from a head of
state devoted to the Holocaust and delivered not abroad but in Russia. The
government has been demonstrating its appreciation of our educational and
scientific programs: the Holocaust Center has been awarded the Russian
Federation President grant of $40,000 for two subsequent years; the government
Humanitarian Research Foundation has provided support for the publication of
the “Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in the USSR” (it will come out in the summer
of 2009); the Moscow City Government gave a grant for organizing a memorial
evening and conference for schoolchildren in the city of Brest; and the Website
of the Holocaust Center and Foundation became the winner of the National
Tolerance Contest. During this year, the greatest number of seminars and
documentary exhibitions were conducted during the entire history of the Center;
three groups of school and university teachers underwent training at leading
museums in Israel and the USA. The Fourth
Conference of Russian Students at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris was conducted on a very high level,
with the participation of the leadership of UNESCO, Simon Wiesenthal Centre and
the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. Two new projects were launched: one
of identifying burial sites of Holocaust victims in Russia
and the other of sponsoring performances in Moscow schools jointly with the Hasidic
Cappella Chorus. The monograph and collection of documents prepared by our
Center were published in the USA
and Germany.
The planned publications of the Center include a book devoted to Simon
Wiesenthal and the memoirs of Avraam Sutskever.
These and
other resul ts of the Center ’s activities will be further discussed in this
issue.
Deutsch
Русский
January 29th-31st 2009. The Conference under this topic was organized in St. Petersburg by the Russian Research and Educational “Holocast” Center as by the State-Universitiy “Herzen” in St. Petersburg.
Because of this event, there was a memorial evening in the House of Literature in Moscow. The Evening was organized by the Russian Research and Educational Center, the Embassy of the State of Israel and other Jewish organizations in Moscow.
