January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day

n 27 January 1945, the advancing in , Rahumäe, in the presence of Red Army entered the Auschwitz- representatives of the government and OBirkenau Riigikogu. complex, liberating more than 7 000 Around that date, the Ministry of remaining prisoners, who were for the Education and Research, along with most part ill or dying. partner organisations like the Estonian The United Nations General Assembly Institute of Historical Memory and the passed Resolution 60/7 on 1 November Estonian Institute of Human Rights, 2005 to designate 27 January as the organise seminars and conferences International Day of Commemoration in for educators and teachers of history memory of the victims of , and civics. Museums, cinemas and the the day upon which every year the world Estonian Public Broadcasting schedule would mark and remember the Holocaust thematic events, with the goal to bring and its victims. the topic more to the centre of public In 1995, the European Parliament adopted discourse and create links with societal a resolution calling for the establishment changes, including new forms of racism, of a European Holocaust Remembrance xenophobia and intolerance. Day in all Member States. In 2005, in is a member state of the parallel with the UN General Assembly International Holocaust Remembrance resolution, it adopted a resolution Alliance since 2007. The founding proposing 27 January as European Day document of this organisation is the of Remembrance of the Holocaust in the Stockholm Declaration, adopted at the European Union. Stockholm International Forum on the The declared 27 Holocaust in January 2000. Article 1 of January to be the Day of Remembrance the Declaration states: “The Holocaust of the Victims of the Holocaust even (Shoah) fundamentally challenged earlier, in 2002. Starting from 2012, the foundations of civilization. The by the decision of the Government unprecedented character of the Holocaust Office, the Ministry of Education and will always hold universal meaning.” Research in cooperation with the local Member states of IHRA are committed Jewish Community arranges a national to the principles of the Stockholm commemoration event on that day. The Declaration and carry out activities of event takes place either at the Klooga Holocaust remembrance, education and

ESTONIA AT A GLANCE AT ESTONIA memorial or at the Jewish cemetery research.

1 January 2019 The Holocaust in Estonia Estonian presidents and prime About 4400 Jews lived in Estonia before ministers have condemned the Nazi World War II. In June 1941, the Soviet crimes committed on the occupied authorities deported about 400 Jews to territory of Estonia and have regretted Russia. After the war broke out between the participation of local people in these Germany and the , about atrocities. 3000 Jews left Estonia with the Red On the other hand, at Yad Vashem, Army. The close to 1000 Jews who were Jerusalem a tree has been planted at not able to or did not wish to flee to the the Avenue of the Righteous in memory Soviet Union and remained in Estonia of the Estonian theologian, poet and were arrested by the German occupying philosopher and his wife Eha powers and exterminated by the end who hid a Jewish student and thus saved of 1941. Notoriously, at the Wannsee his life. Two more Estonian citizens have conference on 20 January, 1942, where been attributed the title of the Righteous “the to the Jewish questions” Among the Nations; they are Polina was discussed, on the list of countries Lentsman who lived and saved Jews in concerned, Estonia was the only one the Crimea, and Anna Celmrauga, a dual declared as ‘’ (free of Jews). citizen of Estonia and Latvia, who saved Only a few Estonian Jews survived the Jews in Latvia. The Wall of Honours at German occupation. Yad Vashem immortalises their names. During the war, the German authorities Holocaust research, education and brought Jews to Estonia also from other remembrance activities occupied countries. In 1943-44, nearly The first comprehensive research on the 12 500 Jews, mostly from Lithuanian Holocaust on the territory of Estonia was ghettos, were brought to Estonia. 7 500 carried out in 1999-2006 under the aegis to 8 000 of those people lost their lives. of the International Commission for the The SS-controlled Vaivara concentration Investigation of Crimes against Humanity camp system, consisting of 20 labour and the results were published in a camps, created with the aim to provide compendium titled Estonia 1940-1945. a workforce for the oil-shale industry in Reports of the Estonian International north-eastern Estonia, functioned from Commission for the Investigation of August 1943 to September 1944. The Crimes against Humanity, Tallinn 2006. most significant labour camps were in http://www.mnemosyne.ee/hc.ee/ Kiviõli, Kunda, , Klooga and Ereda. index_frameset.htm). In its conclusions, The camps were guarded by police the commission wrote that the general battalions formed of and responsibility for most, though not all, of Russians, and by Germans who belonged the criminal episodes addressed in the to the organisation Todt. Starting from report fell on the German military and July 1944, the camps were gradually civilian occupation authorities. This was eliminated, which included the mass established during the execution of Jews incapable of work, and has been confirmed through many culminating in the mass murder of about other connections. Another goal of the 2000 Jews at the Klooga camp on 19 commission was to confirm the identities September 1944. of the Estonians that were responsible ESTONIA AT A GLANCE AT ESTONIA On numerous public occasions, for crimes against humanity, genocide

2 January 2019 or war crimes as a result of their official materials are available both in Estonian positions or activities. and Russian languages. The history of the Holocaust, which was Four sites related to the Holocaust are not taught during the Soviet time, became protected as national monuments. They part of the national curriculum shortly are an execution site and mass grave in after Estonia regained independence in Kalevi-Liiva, a mass grave in Klooga, a 1991. In the current national curriculum mass grave in Reiu and a burial ground at (adopted in 2011) the Holocaust is part of the Metsakalmistu Cemetery in Tallinn. At the topics of World War II and totalitarian Klooga, in addition to several monuments, regimes in the recent history thematic an open-air exhibition was inaugurated block. The topic of the Holocaust and in 2013. Commemoration ceremonies crimes against humanity is connected take place at Klooga every year on 19 to the horizontal topics of human rights, September wreaths are laid at the Klooga values and morals which are integrated memorial also on 23 August, the European throughout the entire study process at Day of Remembrance of the Victims of all levels of education. However, the Totalitarian Regimes. Each year on 5 Holocaust is explicitly addressed in the September, commemorative ceremonies history syllabus of the 9th grade under are held at Kalevi-Liiva, a killing site and the topic of World War II; the upper now a memorial to the Jews and Roma secondary school syllabi of the history who were murdered there in 1942-1943. of the recent era include a separate topic All these commemoration events are (seperate from the WW II bloc) on crimes part of the overall remembrance culture against humanity. New and revised in Estonia whose population suffered relevant textbooks including the topic of considerable losses under both Nazi and the Holocaust are published regularly. A communist regimes and occupations. teachers’ handbook and extensive study

ESTONIA AT A GLANCE AT ESTONIA The outdoor exhibition of the Estonian History Museum, “Klooga camp and the Holocaust” Photo: Estonian History Museum

3 January 2019