Address to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly by the International conference “Legacy of World War II and the Holocaust”

International conference “Legacy of World War II and the Holocaust”,

Address to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

We, the participants of the international conference “Legacy  of War II and the Holocaust”, express deep concern on the July 3^rd, 2009 adoption of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Resolution on Divided Europe Reunited: Promoting Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the OSCE Region in the 21st Century.

We hold that is unacceptable that paragraph 3 of Resolution equalizes the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. While paying tribute to the victims of illegal political repression of the Stalinist regime, we nevertheless believe it necessary to draw the attention of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to the fact that the crimes of the Nazi regime were unique in their scope and ideological motivation. Ignoring this fact, the attempt to equate the absolute evil (of the Nazi regime) and evil relative (of Stalin's regime) leads to the denial of the unique nature of Nazi crimes, and to the revision of the memory of the Holocaust. This directly contradicts what is contained in paragraph 4 of Resolution: the recognition the uniqueness of the Holocaust

We express concern at the statement in paragraph 7 of Resolution that proclaims a need to take into account "historical and cultural backgrounds of the countries concerned” in transition from Communist dictatorship to democracy. In this thesis, we see the thinly veiled support of human rights violations of ethnocratic regimes in Latvia and Estonia, substantiating the existence of the shameful and undemocratic institution of “non-citizenship” as arising out of the “experience of Soviet occupation”. We are confident that this approach is not consistent with the principles of the OSCE.

In anticipation of the 65^th anniversary of Victory of World War II, our outrage is therefore directed at paragraph 17 of resolution: a statement concerning the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in connection with “the holding of public demonstrations glorifying the Nazi or Stalinist past”. We see this as an attempt to deprive CIS countries and Israel of the right to a public celebration of the Soviet victory over Hitler and the Nazi regime.

It is unacceptable to render congruently the Nazi and Soviet regimes, setting a comparison between those who created the Auschwitz death camp of  and those who put out its furnace, those who destroyed millions of Jews, and those who rescued them. Even more outrageous are the attempts of a number of OSCE member-states to render the Nazis as victims of Stalinist regime’s illegal repression.

We appeal to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to desist from attempts to equalize the crimes of the Nazi regime and the Stalinist regime, as they inadvertently open the door to review the outcomes of the Second World War and Holocaust revisionism.

Reuniting a divided Europe can only happen through a consistent anti-Nazism, and an inadmissibility of both direct and indirect justification of Nazism, Nazi criminals and their collaborators.