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
A Note from the Editor of The Newsletter № 42 of Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center and The Holocaust Foundation
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.
