Levy: Let us read together history book that unites us

BELGRADE - Israeli Ambassador in Serbia Yossef Levy expressed on Monday his gratitude and admiration for the manner in which Serbian officials honor the memory of Holocaust victims, adding, however, that many citizens are unaware of the Jewish Holocaust in Serbia.

Year after year, I see politicians, the president, the prime minister, the ministers, personally attending the commemorations, Levy told Tanjug ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27.

Levy pointed to the touching speeches by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, the presence of Minister of Labor, Employment, Social Policy and Veteran Affairs Aleksandar Vulin at the opening of an exhibition on war crimes of the Wehrmacht, and Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic attending the ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Novi Sad raid.

I strongly appreciate the personal involvement of so many high-ranking Serbian officials in creating this architecture of memory. This is important both for Serbia and for us, the Israeli ambassador said.

Speaking about the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, which will be marked on January 27, Levy stressed that the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of more than 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, remains the most tragic chapter in the long and tumultuous history of the Jewish people.

We are still living in the shadow of the Holocaust... We are still living with the burden of that memory and pain, the ambassador said, adding that Europe was home to the Jewish people before the Holocaust but that not many of them had survived World War II.

Today we are facing a tide of extremely...