Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the opening ceremony of a new exhibition about the Holocaust, the great mass-execution drive of over six million Jews and others deemed by Nazi Germany to be “unfit” for life. The speech was extremely succinct, so much so that we are printing the full translation below along with the video.
We want to provide a further service though, so in the text of the speech you will see hyperlinked places that offer further explanation of some of the vague charges Mr. Lavrov has given. It is a classic feature of Russian diplomacy to lay the charge out very clearly, while not naming the perpetrator of the charge. This is statesmanship, and properly applied, it should interest the listener or the reader to conduct their own research to find out what the whole story is.
The Duran wants to again call to attention the very important fact that Russia brooks no hostility towards the Jewish people, their religion or their way of life.
Recently an opinion piece by Russia Insider editor Charles Bausman attempts to explain Western media hostility towards Russia as being a “Jewish-based” phenomenon.
This view is of course, highly charged, controversial, and in the rebuttal pieces by The Duran’s Dmitri Babich, and Alexander Mercouris, this point of view is shown to be far less true that Mr. Bausman holds. Given the text of the speech here, it is apparent that the Russian Federation stands committed to upholding the dignity of humanity everywhere, and of every ethnicity and creed.
At The Duran, we consider free speech and expression to be sacred. But more than that, we consider honest and objective assessment to be the journalistic Holy Grail, and we strive to achieve this. Nevertheless, we believe that we seek to find and report the truth, and most of all, to do it in such a way that allows our readers to think about topics for themselves.
What we DO have on our side is the simple fact that the truth always reveals itself to one who seeks it, and our efforts to analyze and describe the amazingly complex field of geopolitics hopefully are tools to reveal the truth, in hopes that we might act in knowledge of the truth.
Here is the speech in full, followed by the text:
It is a great honor for me to address the UN headquarters at the opening of the historical and documentary exhibition “The Holocaust: Destruction, Liberation, Salvation”. This exhibition is held on the eve of the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust, celebrated annually on January 27.
First of all I would like to thank the Scientific Educational Center “Holocaust”, its co-chairman Ilya Altman, the Russian Jewish Congress for organizing this exposition, which contains unique archival documentary evidence of the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust, photographs of prisoners of Nazi death camps and their liberators, (which included) the soldiers of the Red Army.
Russian soldiers with men liberated from the Nazis’ Auschwitz concentration camp. 1,082,000 people, mostly Jewish, were murdered at this camp alone.
The Holocaust is one of the most horrible crimes against humanity, the manifestation of merciless cruelty and contempt for the value of life. The mass extermination by the Nazis, of Jews, as well as many victims from other ethnic groups was the result of the implementation of the misanthropic policy of racial superiority.
Our sacred duty is not only to honor the memory of the millions of innocent victims, but also to do our utmost to avoid the recurrence of such tragedies in the future.
One cannot but be disturbed by the fact that recently we have seen a creeping resurgence of Nazism. In a number of countries, including those classifying themselves as “paragons of democracy,” there is a systemic course for revision of the historical outcome of the Second World War, including the glorification of the activities of the Hitler activities (Nazism) of local collaborationists.
Inmates of the Nazi concentration camp at Ebensee. This camp was one of the deadliest Nazi camps. Approximately 20,000 inmates were literally worked to death here.
Such actions are sacrilegious from the general human point of view. They challenge the postwar architecture of security, which is based on the UN Charter, the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal, and other unshakable international legal documents.
All of us need to counteract these extremely dangerous trends.
In Russia, special attention is paid to this problem. Every year, we submit to the UN General Assembly a draft special resolution on combating the heroism of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of contemporary forms of racism and intolerance.
The number of states that have co-sponsored it has been steadily growing from year to year.
Once again we adopted such a resolution a month ago, on December 19, 2017, at the plenary session of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly. The document was approved by an overwhelming majority of member nations, but a number of countries did not support it, trying to justify their position by referring to the need to respect freedom of speech. [the vote was 133 in favor, 49 abstentions, and 2 against – Ukraine and the USA]
I believe that today’s exhibition is designed to send another unambiguous signal that such attempts to re-interpret Nazizm are absolutely unacceptable.
Soviet Soldiers with women liberated from Auschwitz
In the coming months, this exhibition will be shown in a number of other countries. I am convinced that this will help solidify historical truth, will once again remind of the valorous feats of those who defeated Nazism, saved Jews and other peoples from complete destruction.
In conclusion, I would like to wish you good health and all the wellbeing to our dear veterans, including those who saved the Jews, liberating Auschwitz, and those who helped to save us all defeated Nazism in Europe.
Of course, I’m very glad to see my good friend Arthur Schneier, who is one of the pillars of New York political life and conducts a very important work to prevent the hero-making of those people who committed heinous crimes.
