n Brest (Belarus), at the 9th
International Annual Conference for Schoolchildren “Holocaust:
Remembrance and Warning”, 16 school students from large and small
cities of Russia (Moscow, Moscow Region, Samara and Tobolsk), Ukraine
(Kremenets and Donetsk), Moldova (Beltsy) and Belarus (Mir, Smilovichi,
Pinsk, Kalinkovichi and Brest) made presentations and visited the Brest
Fortress at dawn on June 22, the State Archive of Brest Region and
Holocaust sites.
The organizer and head of all
nine conferences, Ilya Altman, co-chair of the Holocaust Center, noted
the much higher technical level of the presentations and films.
Participants from Moldova were attending the conference for the first
time. Prominent scholars were present at the opening of the conference:
the head of the Ukrainian Center for the Study of the History of the
Holocaust, Anatoly Podolsky, and director of the Jewish Resistance
Museum in Novogrudka, Tamara Vershitskaya. As always, the meeting with
the only surviving former minor prisoner of the Brest Ghetto, writer
Roman Levin, made a very strong impression on the participants in the
conference.
Alexander Sidorkin, a 10th grade
student from Tobolsk (Russia), who devoted his presentation to the
antifascist struggle in Germany and whose trip to Brest took three
days, admitted that before the conference he “only had a general idea
about the Holocaust”.
- I became acquainted with Roman
Levin, the “boy from the ghetto”. The atmosphere at the conference was
very well-wishing. I was deeply moved by the ceremony at the Brest
Fortress on June 22. I learned a lot at the conference. That is why we
have to speak at conferences and compete for a chance to come to Brest!”
Dr.Altman pointed out that the next 10th Conference will take place
during the year of the 65th Victory Anniversary and that the number of
participating countries will hopefully be expanded.