The message reads, in part:
“The International Science and Practical Forum Zmievskaya Balka: History of Genocide, part of the No Statute of Limitations project, continues the large-scale and highly topical work to restore historical, moral and human justice. You are doing a lot to disclose unknown events of the Great Patriotic War, to perpetuate the names of Red Army soldiers and to investigate Nazi crimes in occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
The tragedy near Zmievskaya Balka became such a mournful and tragic page. Eighty years ago, Einsatzgruppen henchmen tortured to death over 27,000 civilians, including senior citizens, women and children, here, on the Rostov land.
It is painful and difficult to read the emotionless lines of archival records and eyewitness accounts. However, we must know and remember the millions of Russians, Roma and Jews who met a terrible death only because the Nazis considered their ethnicity to be “incorrect” and brutally exterminated representatives of these and other nations for the mere fact of their existence. We will never forget these atrocities, we will remember the dead, and we will always honour the feat of the great Soviet nation that defended the Motherland and crushed Nazism. This is our sacred duty.
This is why the work of scientists, archivists and amateur archaeologists, service personnel, jurists and volunteers, all those implementing the No Statute of Limitations project is so important.”