Anti-Semitism growing around the world - Matviyenko
MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) - The Holocaust and other crimes committed by the Nazis cannot be forgotten, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said.
"It sometimes happens that you hear, 'So much time has passed, is it worth talking so much about Auschwitz, about the Holocaust?' We are absolutely convinced it is. Humankind has no right to forget about the Holocaust, about the Siege of Leningrad, about Khatyn in Belarus, about Lidice in Czechoslovakia, about Babyn Yar, the atrocious suppression of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, and numerous other crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis. We should remember this so that nothing of the sort happens again," Matviyenko said at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Neo-Nazis and anti-Semites are rearing their head again, she said.
"We see torch processions with Nazi symbols and Nazi signs, we see monuments to soldiers who died for the liberation of Europe torn down and new monuments to Nazi accomplices erected and streets named after them - and we keep silent. The same happened in the 1940s. After all, Nazism is not only the brainchild of Germany and that time. Everybody in Europe and the world saw what was happening but underestimated the threat of the inhuman Nazi ideology and its consequences," Matviyenko said.
"It would be good if we could realistically assess the growing threat of anti-Semitism, Russophobia, and other phobias," she said.
It is extremely important for the world to oppose this phenomenon together, she said.
"All of us, including societal forces, civil society institutions, and private individuals, should understand their responsibility for the future of humankind. And we, parliamentarians, should do all we can to prevent the revival of Nazi ideology, with its beastly guise," she said.
There should be more films like Konstantin Khabensky's "Sobibor," "which show the danger of the events and attempts to rewrite history and whitewash the Nazis and their accomplices," Matviyenko said.
"This is the responsibility of each one of us, this is the responsibility of the current generation, so that we pass on the memory that is in our hearts, which I inherited from my parents, from my mom, who saved a Jewish family during the war, to future generations," she said.