Participants in a rally in Volgograd called for commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust.

A Holocaust Remembrance Rally in Volgograd attracted approximately 50 people. Participants emphasized the importance of preserving the memory of the victims and studying the causes of the tragedy, calling for "not to forget the horrors of war."

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," as part of the annual "Holocaust Remembrance Week," which runs from January 14 to 28, library and educational institution staff, as well as representatives of Jewish communities in the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts, held lectures, meetings, and other informational events.

A rally dedicated to International Holocaust Remembrance Day was held in Volgograd on January 27. The event, held in Volgograd's 8 March Square near the monument "To the Victims of the Holocaust on Stalingrad Land," was organized by the Jewish community. According to community leader Yael Yoffe, the rally was attended by community members, students from the Or Avner school, and ordinary citizens; a total of about 50 people gathered at the monument. Yael Yoffe recalled that on January 27, 1945, Red Army troops liberated the prisoners of the Auschwitz death camp. "In keeping with tradition since January 2008, memorial events dedicated to International Holocaust Remembrance Day are held in this square, at the site of the 1942 massacre of Jewish civilians in Stalingrad. "We have gathered to remember the monstrous crimes of the Nazis, to emphasize the need to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and the inadmissibility of a repeat of such a tragedy," Ioffe said, opening the rally. Jewish community activist Khaim Bolshakov reminded the participants that Russia commemorates two memorial dates on this day: the Day of the Complete End of the Siege of Leningrad and Holocaust Remembrance Day. "What do the tragedy of the siege and the tragedy of the Holocaust have in common? In both cases, the Nazis aimed at the total extermination of people simply because they were Leningraders and simply because they were Jews," explained Bolshakov. Students from the Or Avner school recited poems about the Holocaust, and Alexei Melnichenko, Chairman of the Volgograd Region Committee for Nationalities and Cossack Affairs, also spoke at the rally. At the end of the memorial event, Chief Rabbi of Volgograd and the Volgograd Region Zalman Ioffe recited the Kaddish prayer. In accordance with Jewish tradition, participants placed stones, flowers, and candles on the monument's pedestal in memory of the deceased. There were no provocations during the rally; a police patrol was stationed at the entrance to the park.

Law enforcement officers themselves were the first to respond when anti-Semitic acts occurred anywhere in Russia.

"To the credit of law enforcement, it must be said that they posted guards near the synagogue for every minor event of our community. Moreover, in some cases, we didn't even ask them, but they themselves were the first to respond when anti-Semitic acts occurred anywhere in Russia. This happened more than once; they promised patrols. "Preventive work in our city is well-established," said Yael Ioffe.

She told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that from 2017 to 2022, as part of a joint project of the Russian Jewish Congress, the Holocaust Scientific and Practical Center, the Volgograd Jewish Religious Community, and the Community Center, nine memorial signs were erected at the sites of mass Jewish deaths in the Oktyabrsky, Kalachevsky, and Kotelnikovsky districts of the Volgograd Region and in the Republic of Kalmykia: in Vodino, Goncharovka, Aksay, Peregruznoye, Plodovity, Kamenka, Zhutovo-1, Primorsky, and Vesyoloye.

"Our elders often told us about relatives who died during the war. On my mother's side, the family lived in Belarus. Only those who were studying in Moscow and Minsk at the beginning of the war survived. "The rest of the village's residents were all killed; no one survived. We don't know how they were killed; there were no witnesses. On my father's side, everyone survived the war. My grandfather fought, served in the air defense forces, and was awarded a medal for defending Moscow, but he died in the 1970s. I never saw him," student Mila Ganina told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The girl believes that the memory of the Holocaust victims must be preserved, and the causes of the tragedy "must be carefully studied and passed on to posterity." "A terrible tragedy, a national catastrophe. I don't know how many descendants there would have been, or how much good they could have done, if they had all survived. They didn't just destroy people, but generations of people who could have lived among us." "Wars are horrific in their cruelty, both to the living and to those who could have been born but weren't," said Mila Ganina. Mila noted that she hadn't encountered any anti-Semitic acts in Volgograd in the past five years. She couldn't recall a single similar "shameful incident" at the university where she studies. A friend of Mila's, who introduced herself as Elena, noted that their university has displays dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad, but doesn't offer discussions about the Holocaust to students. "But at the school we attended, in the Dzerzhinsky district of Volgograd, we were often told about the Great Patriotic War and our heroes, and even the Holocaust was mentioned a few times," said Elena. She also noted that she recently listened to Grigory Zinchenko's audiobook, "Escape from Buchenwald," which left a strong impression on her.

"I expected the severe frost to prevent the rally today. But nature was kind; it wasn't cold and there was no wind. I live nearby, and this is my third year coming to this rally. My mother fought in the war; she was a nurse, and her parents died in Donbas. Our father was repressed at the time and served time in a concentration camp in Siberia. We must remember everything. We must not forget the horrors of war," said pensioner Antonina Agarkova.

The pensioner also noted that cases of anti-Semitism are rare in Volgograd. According to her, the last time this was discussed was during the unveiling of a monument to the victims of the Holocaust on Stalingrad soil, when, the day after the ceremonies, a vandal committed an act of vandalism.

Anti-Semitic crimes are rare in the Volgograd region, although their manifestations occur at the everyday level, members of the Jewish community previously indicated. They also noted that local Jews try to keep their religiosity low-key.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported that a Volgograd court sentenced Gasan Abukov, a native of Dagestan, to two and a half years in prison for assaulting and beating a Jewish man on the street. The attack occurred in July 2024. The state prosecutor appealed the sentence, demanding that Abukov be given four years in a maximum-security prison, but the Volgograd Regional Court upheld the sentence after hearing the appeal.

There have been isolated anti-Semitic incidents before. For example, in 2013, bike show participants threw stones at a Jewish community kindergarten, and memorials have been desecrated on several occasions. In November 2021, a man was arrested for desecrating a monument to Holocaust victims; he was subsequently sentenced to six years in prison.