MINSK, 28 April (BelTA) – A repeat of the Holocaust must not be allowed, BelTA learned from Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Belarus Alex Goldman Shayman.
Alex Goldman Shayman said: “Victory Day is marked on 9 May in Israel. It is a national holiday for us. More than 500,000 Jews fought in ranks of the Red Army. Both grandfathers of mine fought during the war. It is very close and very important for us. And together with other countries, including Belarus, we fight against anti-Semitism, against those, who deny the Holocaust. It is a very important everyday fight.”
The ambassador noted that one cannot look calmly at the revival of Nazism and fascism in the world, at rampant genocide. “We are very sensitive about it. Regretfully, there is our experience when an entire nation was supposed to be eradicated only because it belonged to the Jewish nation. It seems to me that recollections, ceremonies, and memorial complexes being opened are very important. We work both in Israel and at the international level in order to work out laws so that the Holocaust would never be repeated,” Alex Goldman Shayman added.
A ceremony dedicated to the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day is taking place in the Belarusian State Museum of History of the Great Patriotic War today. During the ceremony Alex Goldman Shayman is expected to present diplomas and medals of the Righteous Among the Nations to descendants of the Belarusian citizens, who saved Jews during World War Two and were awarded this distinguished title by a special commission of the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem.
The exhibition “Art during the years of the Holocaust” featuring works from Yad Vashem's collections was organized as part of the event. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the world of graphic arts of the Shoah period (the Holocaust). Created by twenty artists in 1939-1945, the works reflect contradictions between the desire to freeze into place the dreadful events with art media and the desire to break free into the realm of art, imagination, and faith. Most of the artists did not survive. Often created at the risk of their own lives, the works testify to the strength of human spirit that refuses to surrender.
