On June 5, the Secretary General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Vice President of the World Jewish Congress Michael Chlenov participated in a ceremony commemorating the Hungarian Jews who were victims of Nazism. The ceremony took place at the memorial military cemetery at the Rudkino village of Voronezhskaya Oblast.

The cemetery houses the remains of Hungarian soldiers who fought on the side of Germany against the USSR. But it is also the last refuge of 2000 Hungarian Jews who were forcefully drafted into “labor battalions” assigned to Hungarian combat units. They were sent to the Eastern front with neither uniforms nor weapons, solely to dig trenches, build barbwire entanglements, and clear mine fields. It had not been planned for them to come back.

The memorial ceremony was organized by the Embassy of the State of Israel to the Russian Federation. In the corner of the cemetery where Jews from “labor battalions” were buried, representatives of the Israeli delegation headed by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to the Russian Federation Dorit Golender laid a wreath to a sign in the shape of a menorah. Memorial candles were lit.

Among those who spoke at the ceremony were: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to the Russian Federation Dorit Golender, Head Rabbi of Russia Adolph Shayevich, Rector of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University Sergey Philonenko, head of the Russian representative office of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Alik Nadan, and co-chairman of the Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center Ilya Altman.

In his speech at the ceremony, Michael Chlenov noted: “The more time passes since World War II, the more tragic events come to light. The Holocaust is associated first and foremost with death camps, ghettoes, and shooting sites, but it should be known that so-called “labor battalions are also a part of its history. It is important that they are remembered in Hungary, where anti-Semitism has been lifting its head again recently.”