Prime Minister Fico met on September 7 with a delegation from the American Jewish Committee led by Rabbi Andrew Baker who also is the Personal Representative for Combating Anti-Semitism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the SITA newswire wrote.
During his visit to Slovakia, Baker has been accompanied by B'nai B'rith Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin and Norbert Hinterleitner, his advisor for issues of anti-Semitism. The guests were told of the Slovak plans to set up a Holocaust Museum at the site of former labour 'camp for Jews' at Sereď.
Baker voiced his appreciation for this government's approach to the Holocaust memory and Slovakia's Holocaust Remembrance Day on September 9 and also thanked the government for having legislation against holocaust deniers in Slovakia, which he said attests to the strong political will in this respect, according to SITA.
The visitors will attend the unveiling of a Monument to Gallant Souls in Zvolen devoted to those killed during WWII while trying to save persecuted Jews on September 8. Fico said that he thinks it is regrettable that young people know little about the killing of Jews during the Second World War. To change this, the PM came up with a proposal to build memorials nears schools to victims of the Holocaust and to people who were helping Jews survive. SITA, TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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