Архив за July 2009

 The meeting included the presentation of the Russian version of the book “Anti-Semitism: The Generic of Hatred. Essays in remembrance of Simon Wiesenthal”, which was published by the initiative of the UNESCO. The Co-Chairman of the Russian Holocaust Center, Dr. Ilya Altman contributed Simon Wiesenthal’s historical fairness during his speech in Tallinn.

 Due to that, Ilya Altman talked about the lessons of the Holocaust. He underlined the danger of the repeating of history and the importance of fighting Xenophobia and Racism.

Next to Dr. Ilya Altman, Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel took part in the meeting. He talked about the different working fields of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and about the succeeds of the last years of fighting racist activities in different countries.
Zuroff criticized the position of the Baltic stated, which have not condemned even one single person who had committed crimes during the time of WWII, during the time of there independence. He even criticized the equalizing of the national socialist and the communist regimes, what some politicians of the Baltic States are doing. “This puts the attention away from the collaboration with the Nazis of the people during the time of the war”, did he say.

 The meeting got a lot of attention from the mass media, a lot of reporters listened to the conference in the Tallinn “Olümpia” Hotel.

 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";
 - 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