Every year at the end of January, the UN marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. On January 27, Red Army troops liberated one of the most terrible Nazi death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, also known by its Polish name Oświęcim.
On Saturday, January 25, a memorial service and forum “We Must Never Forget” was held at the Park East Synagogue in New York with the participation of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
Taking part in the event were the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations and the UN Security Council, V.A. Nebenzya; the Consul General of Russia in New York, S.K. Ovsyannikov; military attachés of the countries whose armies liberated the concentration camp prisoners; Permanent Representatives to the UN and diplomats of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition; and senior representatives of the U.S. Congress and other governmental and public organizations.
With the blessing of the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, and of Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Temporary Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, the head of the chancery of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Priest Mark Rashkov, took part in the memorial event and read the greeting of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ to the participants of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
During the exchange of views, the participants expressed concern about the rise of antisemitism throughout the world and called for jointly resisting manifestations of hatred and intolerance while preserving the memory of the millions of victims of the Holocaust.
The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke about the efforts undertaken by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church to draw the attention of the world community to the problem of antisemitism and religious intolerance in the modern world, in meetings with political, civic and religious leaders, in the media, and at various international venues and forums, including within the framework of the Interreligious Council of Russia.