World Holocaust Forum coverage,
The fight against the Nazi siege of Leningrad symbolized the strength and the spirit of Soviets fighting the Nazis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin said in their remarks at the opening on Thursday of a monument in Jerusalem to the defenders of Leningrad during its siege by the Nazis.
“It was a struggle in which residents of Leningrad saw how light defeats darkness, how spirit overcomes the hardships of the bodies,” Rivlin said. He recounted how the city was “bombed and starved by the cruel Nazi enemy,” and “children, women, elderly people and soldiers died, starved to death, froze and sacrificed their lives for their city and their homeland.”
Some 600,000 to 1.5 million residents of the city perished during the 900-day blockade of Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, among them tens of thousands of Jews, many of whom enlisted in the Red Army or joined volunteer militias that defended the city.
Rivlin pointed out that January 27 is a symbolic date for the shared history between Russia and the Jewish state, because on that date in 1944, the blockade on Leningrad was broken, and a year later, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. That date is now International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Racism, antisemitism and hate... is a struggle that will continue for generations,” the president added, paying tribute to the Red Army’s “courage and strong stance against the cruel Nazi oppressor... The memory will live on for many years in the hearts of the coming generations.”
The monument was installed in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park. It was designed by a team of Israeli and Russian architects. The 8.5-meter-high brass-steel column has a cast-bronze element representing a candle that is illuminated at nighttime to give the effect of an eternally burning flame. It has sensors that turn the candle on when anyone is nearby.
Netanyahu said it “speaks to all people... in a universal language: love of the homeland, sacrifice, indescribable willpower, a persistent fight and attaining victory... But the victory over the Nazis does not reduce the level of the tragedy, of almost a million killed in Leningrad alone... The scars have not healed.”
The prime minister made reference to the Iranian nuclear threat, saying that those who seek to destroy the Jewish people today must be stopped.
“We have deeply internalized the lesson,” he said. “There are no compromises with radical regimes with murderous ideologies. We must stop them on time... Unlike then, we, the Jewish people, have our own state today. A strong and advanced state. Whoever tries to destroy us will receive a sharp and decisive response.”
“The danger of radical regimes threatens... the entire world,” Netanyahu said. “We must stand together in a broad international front to defend our security, to defend our existence. Together we will eradicate the threat and ensure our shared future.”
Both Netanyahu and Rivlin mentioned that Putin’s father fought against the siege on Leningrad, and his three-yearold brother died during the blockade before the Russian president was born.
Putin paid tribute to the courage of the Red Army and residents of Leningrad, who he said donated more than 104 tons of blood to soldiers.
“They had a very strong spirit and believed in freedom,” he said. “The memorial being opened today is a symbol of our common, deep memory and honoring veterans of the war.”
Putin said the world should not forget the Holocaust and “xenophobia, chauvinism and antisemitism.”
He also thanked Israel for the ceremony dedicating the monument.
Putin often emphasizes Russia’s role in World War II to his political advantage, riling up patriotism at home. In recent months, Moscow and Warsaw have been in a dispute after he blamed Poland for the outbreak of World War II. However, he avoided controversy in his remarks at the monument ceremony.
World War II veterans and blockade survivors attended the ceremony, as well as Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov and the memorial’s funders: Michael Mirilashvili, president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress; and Victor Vekselberg, chairman of the board of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow.