Compiled by Natalya Mussina School #23 Kazakhstan
Drawing by Francis Pulis,Broadford Secondary College, Australia
We are the generation of future. That's why we should learn the history of Holocaust, not to make sick-like mistakes in future. As we know, clever people normally learn from other people's mistakes. But we learn from our own ones, as we Russians were also guilty in the start of this war. Hitler was ill with the mania of greatness. He wanted to conquer the whole world. He destroyed other countries, but Stalin was destroying his own country. Our country could have fought the invasion, if it hadn't been so weak by that time. Hitler anticipated an easy victory because of the vast territories and because Stalin had shot all the clever and sober-minded people. The country almost collapsed; the economy was weak; the army was not supplied in necessary quantities. But there was the human factor not taken into account. The people fought desperately for their Motherland in spite of all the problems. We should be proud of the peoples of the former USSR, who conquered Hitler's army. No other country was able to stop Germany, and my people played a great part in opposing the Holocaust. This war was both our grief and our pride. Irina Moiseeva
I disapprove of people having lived in the 1930s. They could avoid the war and settle all their problems peacefully. Now we have to learn about their mistakes in the history course, to be educated people. Lots of people died, even children. Jews suffered especially much; I can't see why. Sergey Shvetsov
I think we must not teach the history of the Holocaust on the school program. Those who are interested can learn this sad history somewhere else. I don't think this topic has any special significance. We haven't got any distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish students as well. The study of the Holocaust history gives me common development, nothing else. Elena Kiryakova
The people defended our native land. Therefore we must never forget the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. We must know their names and build them monuments. Alexander Podscryobkin
My attitude to Holocaust is negative, including the WWII. War means destruction of thousands of cities and villages and death of millions of people, of whole peoples. It means death of innocent people, grief and tears of orphans and widows. During the WW II, fifty million people were killed, twenty-six million of whom were Soviet citizens. Thirty-five countries of the world were entangled in the slaughter. Till nowadays the explosions of old bombs and mines are heard in the lands of Ukraine and Byelorussia and other countries. I don't like wars. I can't like them, as my own people, the Kazakhs, were planned for total liquidation by Hitler during the last Holocaust. Yerlan Nurakhmetov
Every person must know the history of his or her native land, love and value it. History is the memory of peoples, the common memory of us all. We must know what was heroic and dramatic and monstrous in it. Every Jew must know his or her history as well as all of us must. During the war years many people, children, old men, and prisoners of war perished in concentration camps. Destruction and fire reigned everywhere. What for? Lydia Goryainova
The people who perished in that terrible war, at least knew, for what they sacrificed their lives. They were rescuing their own country, their family. They didn't want to be ruled by a strange hand. All the sacrifice had sense for people of the USSR. But I have a strange thought, when I look at poor, homeless, jobless people today. What do they suffer for? And what wait for? What victory could be their justification? Nastya Sidorenko
People of the world must know that there was somebody able to fight properly on the alien ground and to believe in victory. I don't think the history is taught differently to Jewish students. We must be proud of our history, of people who won the victory. I think that Russian people can be proud of such victory. Marina Torokhtiy
On 22 June 1941, at 4:00 PM, the Great Patriotic War started. It lasted for four long years; a lot of people died. This bloodshed killed about 25-27 million people in the former USSR only. There were a lot of orphans, widows and lonely people. On 9 May 1945, the war was finished. Aizhan Buranbayeva
The work on the topic of the Great War with my class was a new experience for me. It was the first time I realized what "different generation" means. My kids' ideas on the point were so vague, and for me it was taken for granted, that everybody should know about the Sacred History. Natalya Mussina,Teacher