International Public Forum "Grateful Descendants in Memory of the 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Prisoners of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz by the Red Army and the 78th Anniversary of the Lifting of the Siege of Leningrad" | January 27, 2022

On January 27, on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust and on the Day of the Complete Liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi Siege, at 12:00 (Moscow time) the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly will hold the 12th Session of the International Public Forum - “Grateful descendants in memory of the 77th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz by the Red Army and the 78th anniversary of the Lifting of the Siege of Leningrad.

The forum is supported by the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio (Russia), the Military Heritage Institute (Lithuania) and the Digital History Research Foundation. The partners of the upcoming Session are the Section "History of Bulgaria after the Second World War" of the Institute for Historical Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, Bulgaria), NGO "Daugavpils Branch of the Russian Community of Latvia" (Daugavpils, Latvia), Search Center "Libava" (Liepaja, Latvia ), Military Historical Association "FRONT LINE" (Tallinn, Estonia).

The purpose of the forum is to draw attention to the issues of preserving the historical memory of peoples, supporting the movement against the erosion of value and semantic aspects of history, falsification of the results of World War II and the Great Patriotic War.

The participants will discuss the problems associated with the preservation of historical memory - the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad and the tragedy of the Holocaust, the memory of the victims of the death camps and the recurrence of such events in the future.

One of the key moments of the 12th session is the IMMORTAL MEMORY megaproject – the work for the condemnation of  the crimes of Nazi Germany against peace and humanity in public space and to publish new facts and evidence proving the Nazis' criminal plans for the systematic destruction of the peoples of the Soviet Union.

Work in this direction is being carried out by a group of historians led by Yegor YAKOVLEV, the author of the book "War of Annihilation", about Nazi plans to destroy the population of the USSR.

Previously, this topic was raised at the 6th session of the International Public Forum, held in St. Petersburg in December 2020. As a result, all materials proving the criminal plans of the Third Reich were transferred to the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Traditionally, the forum contributes to the development and activation of practices for the formation of constructive and constructive images of the memory of the Victory over Nazism, which would help strengthen mutual understanding and peaceful relations between countries and peoples.

The 12th session of the International Public Forum will consider the following issues:

• The salvation of the Jewish people by the people of Bulgaria is a unique event in the history of mankind;
• Victims of the war and the fate of war prisoners of the anti-Hitler coalition in the concentration camps of the satellite countries of the Third Reich (Kragujevac, Maribor, Shumen);
• The tragedy of the victims of the Nazi camps in Latvia (Salaspils, Daugavpils, Jelgava);
• The tragedy of the victims of the Nazi camps in Lithuania (Kaunas, Alytus);
• The establishment of Representative Offices of the “Association of the descendants of fighters against fascism and victims of fascism” on the territory of European countries is a guarantee of preserving the memory of the tragedy of the death camps victims and the feat of their liberators.

The forum will be attended by historians, searchers, representatives of military and veteran organizations, public figures from 11 countries - Russia, Belarus, Israel, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Moldova and Estonia.

The International Public Forum is held offline and online.

Andrey BELYANINOV, Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, will address the forum participants with a welcoming speech.

Forum moderators:

• Valery RUZIN, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, President of the Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio (Russia);
• Yurijus TRAKSHELIS, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, Chairman of the NGO "Institute of Military Heritage" (Lithuania).

The forum will be attended by:

• Egor YAKOVLEV (Russia), Director of the Digital History Research Foundation,
  "Techniques for dehumanizing Soviet people in Nazi rhetoric and propaganda";
• Ilya ALTMAN (Russia), Founder and Co-Chairman of the Holocaust Research and Education Center, Professor at the Russian State Humanitarian University;
• Varvara BONDAR, born in 1921 (Estonia), foreman of the medical service, medical instructor of the 329th separate horse-drawn transport company, a living witness to the crimes of the Nazis in the Auschwitz death camp, was awarded the Order of “The Patriotic War” II degree, medals "For Courage", "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For Victory over Germany,
  Video, commented by A.G. Lazurin;
• Valery NADTACHAYEV (Belarus), Scientific Secretary of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War,
  “The tragedy of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War cannot be forgotten!”;
• Natalia BALANOVA (Slovakia), Member of the Coordinating Council of Compatriots in Slovakia - memorial and patriotic direction; member of the Commission for National Minorities under the Government of the Slovak Republic; Coordinator of the action "Immortal Regiment - Slovakia" and Chairman of the public organization "Russian Association - Berega", Trencin;
• Tomas GANIKH (Slovakia), Chairman of the Military History Club of the Czechoslovak People's Army, employee of the Military History Museum;
• Natalia BODROVA (Russia), Chairman of the Interregional Public Organization Search Team "Fakel",
  "The activities of the search teams of the Oryol region to perpetuate the memory of civilians who suffered during the atrocities of the Nazi invaders";
• Vlad BOGOV (Latvia), author of the book “Revived Names. New research about the camp in Salaspils”;
• Konstantin PEEV (Bulgaria), representative of Rossotrudnichestvo of the Russian Federation in Bulgaria,
  “The salvation of the Jewish people by the people of Bulgaria during the Second World War is a feat that will be remembered forever”;
• Irina YAKIMOVA (Bulgaria), Research Fellow, Section "History of Bulgaria after World War II" of the Institute for Historical Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
  "Forgotten tragedy. Concentration camp for prisoners of war pilots of the anti-Hitler coalition in Shumen during the Second World War”;
• Janez UICIC (Slovenia), Director of the International Research Center of the Second World War in Maribor (IRC Maribor) and the Museum of the Nazi Stalag XVIII D Soviet POW Camp in Maribor;
• Oleg KALININ (Slovenia), Adviser of IRC Maribor,
  “The International Research Center of the Second World War in Maribor is an example of the preservation of the memory of the Second World War by descendants”;
• Viktor GUSCHIN (Latvia), Director of the Baltic Center for Historical and Socio-Political Research, Ph.D.in History,
  "Nazi death camps in Jelgava";
• Dmitry RYBNIKOV (Latvia), Deputy Chairman of the NGO “Daugavpils Branch of the Russian Community of Latvia”,
  “Crimes without a statute of limitations. Nazi death camps in Daugavpils”;
• Ramazan NAZAROV (Latvia), Chairman of the Board of the Liepaja Society of Military Pensioners, Member of the Board of the Search Center "Libau",
  "Atrocities of the Nazis against the civilian population and prisoners of war in Liepaja";
• Elena BURAKOVA (Moldova), Director of the Russian Intellectual Center, Deputy Chairman of the Congress of Russian Communities of the Republic of Moldova on Education and Science,
  "On the need to expand access to information about the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population";
• Irina BABRAUSKIENE (Lithuania), Executive Secretary of the Board of Russian Citizens' Organizations in Lithuania,
  "History of the Nazi death camp in Alytus";
• Larisa SOLOSHENKO (Lithuania), Chairman of the Klaipeda Society of Former Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps “Prisoner”,
  "Juvenile prisoners of concentration camps";
• Vyacheslav AFONIN (Lithuania), Head of the NGO "Kaunas Regional Association of Participants in the War in Afghanistan, Disabled Persons and Veterans of Military Service", Head of the Russian Community of Kaunas,
  “The contribution of descendants to the preservation of the memory of the Nazi death camp in Kaunas”;
• Sargis MATEVOSYAN (Estonia), Union of War, Labor Veterans and Russian Compatriots of Kiviõli,
  “Kiviõli labor camps”;
• Ilya KARABLIKOV (Belarus), Belarusian Union of Suvorovites and Cadets,
  “The tragedy of the family is a reflection of the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Great Patriotic War”;
• Andrey LAZURIN (Estonia), Head of the military-historical association "FRONT LINE", representative for international relations of the Tallinn Society of Participants of the Second World War,
  “Evidence of Hitlerism crimes. Klooga is the first Nazi concentration camp, the horrors the world saw from the inside”;
• Alexander DYUKOV (Russia), historian, director of the Historical Memory Foundation, researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
• Olesya ORLENKO (Russia), Head of International Programs of the Historical Memory Fund for Assistance to Actual Historical Research,
  "The Nuremberg trials in the notes of the tribunal member from France Robert Falco";
• Yurijus TRAKSHELIS (Lithuania), Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, Chairman of the NGO "Institute of Military Heritage",
  "The book "Victory for All" is a tribute to descendants in preserving the memory of the Nazi death camps in Europe."