The message reads, in part:
“No matter how much time passes, humanity will never forget this horrible and atrocious tragedy that happened during World War II. Russians deeply mourn millions of innocent people, including our fellow citizens, who were tortured in concentration camps and ghettos, executed, starved to death or died of diseases. We are proud of the unprecedented bravery and selflessness of Red Army soldiers, our allies from the Anti-Hitler coalition and Resistance fighters, who liberated Europe and the world from Nazism, saving entire peoples from extermination.
It is our duty to preserve and pass on the truth about World War II to future generations. It is our invaluable common legacy to cherish and protect its true heroes, to prevent any attempts to justify the monstrous violence of Nazi criminals and their henchmen. We will always remember the tragic and horrifying consequences that enabling nationalism, aggression, racism, anti-Semitism and Russophobia may bring.
I sincerely appreciate the efforts of the Memory Week organisers, participants, volunteers and everybody in Russia and abroad who values the historical truth and shows high civic responsibility.”
The Memory Week is a series of commemorative and educational events marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. On this day in 1945, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The Memory Week is organised by the Russian Jewish Congress with the support of the Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs, Moscow Government and the Holocaust Centre.