SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE-EUROPE
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"These are an offence to all Allied veterans and victims of World War II and encourage today's neo-Nazi activists and Skinheadyouth"
Moscow
In a letter to the Russian Prosecutor-General, Mr. Yuri Yakovlev Chaika, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr.Shimon Samuels, condemned Neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic imagery on sale in Moscow hotel gift shops.
Samuels observed, "Born in London, I have always acknowledged the role of the Red Army on the Eastern Front in preventing a Nazi invasion ofGreat Britain. Thereby, your people's sacrifice contributed to the survival of British Jews from destruction in the Holocaust – only 50 kilometers away on the European continent," adding, "I ampresently in Moscow for an international conference on 'The Lessons of Victory in the Second World War/The Great Patriotic War - Seventy Years Later'.”
The letter noted, "Together with colleagues from the Russian Holocaust Centre and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial of Israel, we werehorrified to discover, an exhibition in a hotel gift-shop, - a chess-set featuring the Red Army led by Joseph Stalin lined up with the Nazi Wehrmacht led by Adolf Hitler – placing them onan equal level."
The Centre highlighted, "Alongside this swastika-bedecked abomination lay the victory ribbon of Russian veterans and, behind it, a shelf of'Matryoshka' dolls of Orthodox Jewish figures displaying anti-Semitic stereotypes."
Chess set
Matryoshka dolls
Samuels had learned, "The Moscow region producer and distributor of these 'souvenirs' - indeed now prohibited by the Russian Federal lawagainst Nazi imagery signed by President Putin this month – serves principally gift-shops in Moscow tourist hotels, reportedly Holiday Inn and Hilton chains. It is mainly tourists who may pay27,000 roubles (USD $590.00) for such products."
The letter argued, "These sales are an insult to every Allied veteran and victim of World War II and also to the Russian tradition of chessexcellence."
The Centre urged the Prosecutor-General to, "Confiscate all such products in view of their offence to history and their encouragement totoday's neo-Nazi activists and Skinhead youth."
"Legal measures must also be take against the producers and distributors", concluded Samuels.
For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33 609 7701 58,
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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in theUnited States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
