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| Anti-Russian speculations on the Holocaust are unacceptable |
| 2015-09-03 |
| A heavily edited translation: Co-president of the Association of Jewish Organizations of Ukraine Joseph Zissels was quoted as saying in an article about the Holocaust in the British newspaper "Daily Mail": "There are certain stereotypes about the participation of Ukrainian nationalists in the pogroms in the early years of the war, who were part of Soviet history. It is true that the local population collaborated with the German Nazis in the occupied territories, but most of them were ethnic Russian." I know perfectly well who collaborated with the Nazis and destroyed my people in Ukraine. And there were also Bulgarians, Hungarians, Estonians, etc. But I am sure the killers and sadists have no nationality. The question itself seems to me so monstrous and insane. Indeed, the local population in the occupied territories often participated in pogroms, without waiting for the Wehrmacht. The killings began immediately after the retreat of the Red Army. And in Ukraine, it was more likelyto happen in Ukraine than in Belarus or Russia. Sometimes the incredible happened: in Volodarsky-Volyn in the Zhytomyr region, advancing German troops stopped the mayhem. In his memoirs, a participant of those events, Bronislaw G. Grushko told that the Jews rescued from the local anti-Semites by a German officer. In Nalchik, the Jews in the ghetto survived because the local population (and Kabardin Balkaria Muslims) did not cooperate with the occupiers. And there are many other, often paradoxical facts, and they all belong to history. To modern Ukrainian, Russian, and even the German people, they do not belong. At the household level, it is difficult to deal with prejudice, but officials need to understand that the speculation on the Holocaust unacceptable and is especially nationalist. Arguing that seventy years ago Russian killed more Jews than Ukrainians Zissels, first are lying and second are looking for cheap popularity among Ukrainian Russophobes, and thirdly, it does not call the main reason for the Holocaust - the Nazis, who have not beaten finally and who too often rears its snake head. National identity is based on the acceptance of the culture and traditions of its people, to the involvement of the achievements, not in its crime, or the age-old grievances. We come together not against anyone, but to work together to make important good deeds. Especially Jews, survivors of a terrible tragedy must be scrupulous in determining the nationality of their persecutors, and to think a hundred times before they say it aloud. We usually look for Jewish blood in great people to put them in the example of the children - even proud of their ancestors and contemporaries and try to be the same. And protest when someone's nationality becomes an occasion for a "collective responsibility"; this is the slippery slope that leads to genocide. Let it be cursed by those who destroyed the Jews in the Holocaust, that they do not belong to any people, that they are not people, and their names should be erased from the memory of mankind. And the names of the victims, we carve on stone memorials so that they will be remembered forever. Yuri Kanner is president of the Russian Jewish Congress |
| Posted by:badanov |