If a nation does not know its history, if the country loses its history, then its citizens have nowhere to go.
Mirzhakyp Dulatuly

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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International Holocaust Remembrance Day - e-history.kz
In accordance with UN General Assembly resolution of 1 November 2005, annually January 27 is celebrated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people along with countless members of other minorities serves all people of the dangers that are fraught with hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice. The UN General Assembly unequivocally condemned all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occurred.

January 27, 1945 Soviet troops liberated the survivors of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz (Poland), in which 2.8 million people died. A significant part of them were of Jewish origin. Today, in memory of victims of fascism in many countries, there are memorials and museums, research centers and public funds. One of the most widely known is the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC (USA). The museum is seeking documents on the history of the Holocaust and spread knowledge about this unprecedented tragedy.

In 2014, Holocaust Museum appealed to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Archive requesting documents about the evacuation of the Jewish population of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War in Kazakhstan. It should be noted that the theme of the evacuation, as well as the forced deportation of the peoples of the Soviet Union in Kazakhstan, in the Archives of the President of Kazakhstan is studied for several years. During this time, prepared and published several collections of documents, published articles in local and foreign newspapers and magazines. Archive staff took part in the preparation of television programs and documentaries.

Identification of archival documents for the Holocaust Museum was another great research work for the Archive. We studied the thousands of archival files of war: acts, reports, statements, circulars, protocols, correspondence, and information of various departments. 222 archival documents revealed of reviewed cases, which contained information on the history of the evacuation of Jews in Kazakhstan. At the end of 2015, these documents were digitized and transferred to the Museum. In the continuation of the project Archive of the President of Kazakhstan in January 2016 held an exhibition and a round table on "The Holocaust: historical memory - the basis of a viable nation", where were presented papers identified for the Museum of the Holocaust.

                  The arrival of women in Auschwitz

 

The Second World War affected the lives of millions people. Subject on evacuation of refugees who were forced to break away from the living areas and by all available means to escape from a rapidly approaching the Wehrmacht Army remains understudied part of the Holocaust. Carried out in the USSR in 1941-1942 mass evacuation was unprecedented in the history of states and peoples both in its scope and duration, and the conditions in which it was carried out. Five days after the beginning of the war, when a large part of European territory was invaded by the troops of Nazi Germany, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and SNK USSR adopted a resolution "On the procedure for removal and placing of human contingents and valuable property." The evacuation Council was created, to undertake the development of the order and priority of traffic, evacuation center network became unfold to provide people with food and medical care.

In the Archives of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan deposited documents of placement and the work of the evacuated to the Republic industrial enterprises, scientific and cultural institutions in the Great Patriotic War, about the conditions of evacuees. According to evacuation department at SNK of Kazakh SSR of October 2, 1941, to the republic from the front line, Leningrad and Moscow arrived 65 691 evacuees, including 11 931 men, 28 213 women and 25 547 children. From August 1941 to January 1942 in Kazakhstan arrived 386 492 evacuees.

Kazakhstan residents showed kindness and hospitality to evacuees and refugees, sharing with them their own, often close and meager shelter, clothing, food, medicines.

About it recalled participants of Round Table, among the honored guests of which was Koretskaya Lyubov Yakovlevna, the former juvenile prisoner of work camp for Jews, her words would remain in the memory of everyone who was present: "I wish only one thing: that there was no more war. God forbid this to go through. "

Holocaust Museum thanked the President of Kazakhstan Archives for performed work and provided copies of archival documents. Also his gratitude expressed the US Consul General in Almaty Sir Mark Moody. In September 2016 at the VIII International scientific-practical conference on the history of evacuation of refugees during the Second World War in Central Asia and Western Siberia Mark Moody said: "Through the recollections of survivors such as Elie Wiesel, as well as the documents stored in archival institutions of Kazakhstan and other countries, we can reconstruct the terrible days of the Holocaust. Documents of President Archive in Almaty helped us to get information about the evacuation of Soviet Jews in Kazakhstan during the war."

These materials are now stored at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Mark Moody thanked the staff of the Archives of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and emphasized that now millions of Americans and people around the world can learn about the example that Kazakhstan showed the world.

Participants of the events and projects of Archive of the President of Kazakhstan repeatedly noted their educational and cultural importance for the younger generation, a whole society. And projects of Archive of the President of Kazakhstan, devoted to the history of the Holocaust, that acknowledgment.

Representatives of foreign and international organizations participating in the activities and projects of Archives, noted that through archival documents the story is revealed in all its diversity and completeness, and this knowledge makes our countries and peoples closer, and the lessons of the past "will serve all people of the dangers fraught with hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice," as stated in the UN General Assembly resolution of 1 November 2005.

 

By Boris DZHAPAROV

Director of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Archive

Professor, DScTech

Translated by Raushan MAKHMETZHANOVA

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