Terezin, North Bohemia, May 21 (CTK) – Cooperating Europe is the best safeguard against a repeat of war and totalitarian horrors, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said at a traditional meeting to commemorate the victims of Nazi persecution at the National Cemetery in Terezin yesterday.
Jaroslav Vodicka, chairman of the Czech Freedom Fighters’ Union, pointed out the need to recall World War Two events.
“Precisely here, in Terezin, we can comprehend best the value of peace and how dangerous it is to divide society, how dangerous it is to play off nations against oen another, to play people against one another,” Sobotka said.
He mentioned the fates of some people who were imprisoned in Terezin.
“The Nazi ideology tried to settle accounts with artists, writers or journalists,” Sobotka said.
“Terezin has for ever developed a deep resentment towards extremism towards anti-Semitism, towards all forms of nationalist and racist ravaging and resentment towards humiliating people and resentment towards totalitarian willfulness,” Sobotka said.
A Christian and a Jewish prayer was said during the commemoration, which was attended by many politicians, constitutional officials and ambassadors, including delegations from Poland and Germany.
During World War Two, the Nazis established a Jewish ghetto in Terezin, where they gathered 155,000 Jews from all over Europe. Out of them, 117,000 did not survive the war.
The event today was preceded by a commemorative act at the Small Fortress, which the Gestapo used as a prison, in which it gradually held 32,000 people. More than 2600 of them died in Terezin, further thousands died in other Nazi camps.
The Terezin Memorial was visited by 280,000 people last year, most of whom were foreigners.
