Russian Holocaust Essay Laureates and Survivors Testify at UNESCO

Russian Holocaust Essay Laureates and event participants (Simon Wiesenthal Centre - Europe)

Dr.Ilya Altman, Samuel Pisar, Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova, DDG Getachew Engida (Simon Wiesenthal Centre - Europe)

The sixth annual presentation of Russian Holocaust Essay Laureates took place on July 7, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

Co-organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre-Europe, Association Verbe et Lumière-Vigilance and the Russian Holocaust Foundation, the event featured five students from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny-Novgorod, selected from over 1,000 submissions, who presented their research findings.

U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion attended the presentation, along with Russian Federation Ambassador and Chairman of UNESCO’s Executive Board Eleonora Mitrofanova and Israeli Ambassador Nimrod Barkan. UNESCO Deputy Director-General Getachew Engida opened the event.

Auschwitz survivor and international lawyer Samuel Pisar gave a keynote speech, entitled "Remembrance with Hindsight and Foresight."

Other participants included Newsweek Bureau Chief Christopher Dickey, Director of UNESCO's Division of Higher Education Georges Haddad, co-Chair of the Russian Holocaust Foundation in Moscow Dr. Ilya Altman, Verbe et Lumière-Vigilance Board member Alexandre Kaplan, and Simon Wiesenthal Centre-France President, Richard Odier. The Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, thanked UNESCO and in particular, special Adviser Dr. Graciela Vaserman Samuels, for creating the event.

A resolution on “Holocaust Remembrance” was adopted by consensus at UNESCO’s 34th General Conference in 2007. Introduced by the United States, Russia, Australia, Canada, and Israel and co-sponsored by 65 other UNESCO member states, the resolution was conceived to help UNESCO identify how it can promote Holocaust awareness and combat all forms of Holocaust denial.