Paris, 8 July 2009
UNESCO, together with the French educational
foundation Verbe et Lumière – Vigilance (VetL), co-sponsored the Fifth
Annual Russian University Holocaust Essay Competition at UNESCO
Headquarters in Paris. 
The winners are, each year, invited to Paris to
present their papers. This year, over 700 submissions arrived from all
over the former Soviet Union, to be judged by the competition
coordinator, the Russian Holocaust Centre (RHC) in Moscow. The
session was co-chaired by RHC Director, Dr Ilya Altman, and, on behalf
of VetL, Dr Shimon Samuels. UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro
Matsuura, spoke of the 2007 Resolution 61 as the basis for the
Organization's global promotion of Holocaust education. He committed
UNESCO's continued support under future administrations. War criminal
investigator, Beate Klarsfeld, responded with a description of her
German childhood visit to 1943 Nazi-occupied Poland, as formative
in her career, adding the importance of transmission of such memories with the endorsement of UNESCO.
The student laureates presented abstracts of their work:
-Yekaterina Zamarina, a blind student at Sillamae
University, Estonia, Institute of Economics and Management, on "The
History of the Holocaust in Estonia"; in her career, adding the importance of transmission of such memories with the endorsement of UNESCO.
The student laureates presented abstracts of their work: - Anna Mitrushina, of St. Petersburg Herzen University, Faculty of
Social Sciences, on "Teaching the Holocaust in Russian High Schools"
- Alena Samsonova, of Gubkin University of Oil and Gas, Faculty of
Engineering Mechanics, on "Holocaust Denial in Russia" - Bella Khayzens, of Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University, on "Holocaut Semiotics in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"
Photo 1 – Pictured at the ceremony are, from left to right: Front
row: Dr Graciela Vaserman Samuels (UNESCO), Director-General Koichiro
Matsuura, Beate Klarsfeld. Back row: The four Russian laureates, Dr
Ilya Altman, Alexander Kaplan,
Dr Shimon Samuels, UNESCO Education Director Dr Quian Tang, Simon
Kaplan, Anna Kaplan. Present but not visible were Tania Klarsfeld and Dr Eliane Corrin;Photo 2 – The Russian edition of the book, "Antisemitism – The Generic Hatred. Essays in Memory of Simon Wiesenthal", was given to US Delegation member, Esther Coopersmith, for First Lady Michele Obama. Also in the picture: US Charge at UNESCO Stephen Engelken, Dr Graciela Vaserman Samuels, Dr Shimon Samuels