Message of H.E.Mr. Gennady Gatilov,

Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office in Geneva

at the ceremony on the occasion of the observance of the International Day of
Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

January 27, Geneva

During these days the entire world remembers and pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. 76 years ago, at a tragic cost the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, Nazism's most horrific extermination camp. Humanity finally realized the horrendous nature of the Nazi regime and of its crimes committed under the pretext of racial superiority.

The Holocaust has become one of the most tragic pages in the history of mankind. Today we mourn the millions who were tortured, humiliated and brutally killed, who experienced the horrors of concentration camps and ghettos. Jews were the main victim of Nazi hatred. But we must remember that the Nazis intended the same fate for many other peoples, including Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and other nations of the Soviet Union, as well as Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Roma and Sinti.

In 1945, it was the Soviet people who put an end to these barbaric plans and liberated Europe from Nazism. We have paid a price no nation could even imagine in their worst dreams: a toll of 27 million deaths. We will never forget this. Exactly one year earlier another dramatic and heroic moment in the history of World War II ended – the siege of Leningrad was finally lifted.

We should also never forget that Nazi criminals had accomplices. They were often crueler than their masters. Death factories and concentration camps were served not only by the Nazis, but also by their collaborators in many European countries.

The Holocaust will forever remain in the memory of Humankind as an attempt, unique in its cruelty, to implement the principles of a hateful ideology. It is our sacred duty not only to honour the memory of millions of innocent victims, but to do our utmost to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies in the future.

Unfortunately, today the memory of World War II, its lessons and legacy often fall subject to the political agenda of some forces. The immunity against the Nazi virus that was developed at the Nuremberg Trial is beginning to weaken. The propaganda of ideas of racial superiority is intensifying, radical groups of all sorts are raising their profile around the world, there are attempts to split states and societies on ethnic, racial or religious grounds. It is alarming that some countries, including those that consider themselves to be “model democracies”, are pursuing a consistent policy of revising the results of World War II, including the glorification of the Nazis and their local collaborationists. This is completely unacceptable. Atrocities committed by the Nazis and their supporters have no statute of limitations, they cannot be justified or forgiven. It is our common duty to protect the good name of the living and fallen heroes, civilians and victims of the Nazis and their allies. We believe that the full-scale recognition of the results of World War II, which are fixed in the UN Charter and other documents, are an absolute imperative for all countries. We are all responsible for making sure that the terrible tragedies of World War II do not happen again, that future generations remember the horrors of the Holocaust, almost a million innocent victims of the siege of Leningrad and the Nazi death camps.