You're reading: Kyiv forum to discuss attempts to revise World War II history

A planned international conference in Kyiv in mid-November will assess attempts to revise the history of World War II and the Holocaust, the president of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, Boris Shpigel, said on Monday.

The conference will also try to “come up with practical
recommendations for keeping the historical lesson for future
generations,” Shpigel told a convention in Moscow of the Russian Jewish
Congress.

The World Congress of Russian Jewry and the Ukrainian Jewish Committee are organizers of the Kyiv forum.

Shpigel also said that, in celebrating next year the 65th
anniversary of the end of World War II, one must not turn a blind eye
to “shameful tendencies” to revise the war’s history and re-interpret
some of the war’s events.

“There can be no justification for those who, in pursuing their
political interests, are trying to distort lessons of the history of
World War II and whitewash the henchmen of fascism,” he said.

He also said how influential the Russian Jewish Congress will be
directly depends on whether its leaders are willing to cooperate with
other Jewish organizations, both religious and secular.

He said he considered the president of the Russian Jewish Congress,
Yury Kanner, “a unifying figure round whom both business circles and
public figures can rally.”