Holokaust
Холокост
Holocaust

Dear Participants,

We have come here to bow our heads in memory of the people who were killed here, at Klooga, on 19 September 1944.

It was 70 years ago to the day that hundreds of lives were interrupted here cruelly and in an instant, that is hundreds of potential destinies. For those people, the future ended right here on that day. In one moment, just like that. The number of victims has been estimated at up to 2,000. This has been named "probably the biggest massacre that has ever happened in one day on Estonian soil".

Here, by the memorial to victims of the Holocaust, we should remember all the innocent victims of the Holocaust, of which Klooga, after all, was just a small part... as terrible as this sounds. Estonia condemns Holocaust, anti-semitism and crimes against humanity.

Along with others, the Republic of Estonia with all of its state institutions and first of all its citizens was one of the victims of World War II. Our independence was interrupted; the power of the Estonian people over their own land ceased. Various occupational powers turned the territory of Estonia into a testing ground for their ideologies. The Klooga camp can be considered an example of this as well. The prisoners of the Klooga camp who left their lives on the territory of Estonia, as well as the executioners, had either been brought here or had come here from somewhere else.

When the Republic of Estonia was occupied, the traditional Jewish community of Estonia was also quickly brought to an end - and that is something we should remember today. While the Republic of Estonia was the first country in the world to guarantee cultural autonomy to the Jews, the occupying power quickly transformed the country to be "free of Jews" and declared that with hideous pride.

Two large ideologies were standing face to face in Estonia 70 years ago. Clashes of large ideologies always bring along suffering. Death. Terrible pain. Injustice. This applies not only to the cataclysms of the 20th century. Unfortunately, we have to keep our eyes open in today's world as well to notice the dangers.

To notice the ideologies and tendencies threatening that which is most valuable - humanity and humaneness. Because after all, we all have been given only one life. We should cherish it. The one that has been given to us as well as that of others. That is what we should also keep in mind today, when looking at the crises and military conflicts of the new century.

Ideologies should never be allowed to outgrow humanity and humaneness. Twenty years ago, on 31 August 1994, the last Russian troops left Estonia, and on the following day, a memorial was unveiled here, at Klooga. That is symbolic as well.

I would like to thank the Estonian delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the Estonian Jewish Community for organising this event today and for keeping the memory alive, as well as the Estonian History Museum for setting up an accompanying exhibition. I thank everybody who has come here for having an open mind and heart. Humankind will never forget the victims of the Holocaust.