On 23 January 2020, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, attended the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, which took place at the Yad Vashem remembrance center in Jerusalem. The forum was held under the motto “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism”.
The event timed for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army troops was organized by the State of Israel, the European Jewish Congress and the World Holocaust Remembrance Foundation.
A message of greeting was sent to the forum by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
Among the participants in the forum were heads and high-ranking representatives of 47 states. Among the speakers were Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, USA Vice-President Michael Pence, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Prince Charles of Wales, Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The participants were also addressed by Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, president of the World Holocaust Remembrance Foundation; Rabbi Israel Meir Lau; and Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate.
The participants saw video records of the Holocaust history, the liberation of camp prisoners and today’s manifestations of antisemitism. The international orchestra conducted by Vladimir Spivakov played several musical compositions.
The forum concluded with the ceremony of laying wreaths at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial.
— Source: DECR Communication Service / mospat.ru