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Two exhibitions in Sofia on horror of Auschwitz and on Jews saved by diplomacy and self-sacrifice

БНР Новини
Photo: institutpolski.org

#WeRemember is the title that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose this year to show respect to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day - January 27th. More than 120 employees from all departments of the ministrytook part in the initiative and published a joint photo with the message "We remember!" Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva recalled the events linked to the saving of 48,000 Bulgarian Jews during the Second World War. According to her, this act of the Bulgarian people will always be remembered by the entire international community. "On this day, the most important thing is to give an example with our personal actions that the language of hatred and violence is absolutely unacceptable," Minister Ekaterina Zaharievasaid at the opening of the exhibition“Beyond Duty”,dedicated to the victims of the death camps, in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It sheds light on the work of 36 diplomats from 21 countries who saved hundreds of Jews risking their own lives during the Second World War. The exhibition was specially prepared for Sofia by the Embassy of Israel and is a project of YadVashem - the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. On this occasion, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria “Shalom”honored Bulgarians in the framework of their campaign "75 years - the unforgettable faces of the rescue".

At the time when Bulgaria marks 75 years since saving its Jews, another exhibition was presented in Sofia by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, which this year marks its 70th anniversary. The German Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most recognizable symbol of the Holocaust and the most notorious place of genocide in the world. In 2005, at the 60th anniversary since the camp was liberated, the UN General Assembly declared January 27th International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In order to put on display the exhibition "People and Events. 70 years of activity of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum”, its deputy head Andrzej Kaczojik arrived in Sofia. He recalled that this museum was opened as a result of the efforts of former prisoners and the formal act that established it was the law adopted by the Polish Sejm in 1947 for remembering the "suffering of the Polish people and other peoples." Then part of the camp complex was turned into a museum that is a monument and a testimony of the Nazi crimes in occupied Poland.

The main mission of the museum is focusing on educational activities, preserving the memoriesof survivors, as well as the preservation and maintenance of everything left from the former death camp. The exhibition "People and Events" is on display at the Polish Cultural Institute in Sofia and will remain there until February 15th.

English: Alexander Markov




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