NordenBladet —
On 27 January, the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is observed worldwide to commemorate the mass murder of Jews during the Second World War. This year, the traditional commemoration ceremony was held at the Rahumäe Jewish Cemetery in Tallinn. On this day, the Estonia-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) commemorates the victims of the Holocaust and expresses its full support to the Jewish people around the world, and to the State of Israel, its people and its leaders.
“The terrible tragedy of the Holocaust must not be repeated, even though in recent times it increasingly seems that, 80 years later, the world is starting to forget the horrors that took place in the heart of Europe. We are witnessing more and more frequent manifestations of anti-Semitism not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe, and even in Estonia. Such manifestations must be stopped at the very outset, because it was the smaller manifestations that started the terrible events of the 1930s and 1940s,” the members of the Parliamentary Friendship Group write in their joint statement of condolences.
The members of the Parliamentary Friendship Group also point out that Jewish history is full of painful wounds of stigmatisation and persecution, the most tragic expression of which is the Holocaust. “We must do all we can to remember and commemorate what happened in the 1940s under the leadership of Hitler. We must remember the horrible massacre that took place just a year and a half ago in the Israeli kibbutzim along the Gaza border, in which over 1200 Jews were executed and 250 persons were taken hostage. Some of the hostages have been executed or have died by today, and a large number are still unliberated and suffer inhuman living conditions and persecution. Only by remembering, we can stand firm against the repetition of the horrible events in history. In Estonia, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been observed since 2002. The people of Estonia know very well what it means to be repressed and deported, therefore our thoughts are with the Jewish people in every way also in these difficult times for the State of Israel,” they write.
The statement was signed by Chairman of Estonia-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group Eerik-Niiles Kross and members of the Parliamentary Friendship Group Vadim Belobrovtsev, Karmen Joller, Meelis Kiili, Lauri Laats, Riina Solman, Aivar Sõerd, Peeter Tali, Vilja Toomast and Kristo Enn Vaga.
For more information, please contact:
Eerik-Niiles Kross
Chairman of Estonia-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group
eerik-niiles.kross@riigikogu.ee
Source: Parliament of Estonia