NETANYA, Israel, April 25. /TASS/. A commemorative ceremony will take place on Tuesday in Netanya, a city on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, in front of a monument dedicated to the Red Army’s victory over Nazism during World War II. It is co-organized by Moscow City government and the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), Mikhail Savin, the chief of the RJC press service told TASS.
The ceremony will be held as part of the Days of Moscow beginning in Israel.
"An annual commemorative rally will be held by the Red Army Victory monument in Netanya on Tuesday in the run-up to VE-Day," Savin said. Russian and Israeli veterans of World War II will be guests of honor at the ceremony.
"The group of Russian participants who have come to Israel includes Ivan Martynushkin and Leonid Brandt - two soldiers who were among the first one to get into the territory of Auschwitz," Savin said. "Alexandra Garbuzova, who survived captivity in that death camp as a little girl, has also come with the group. She was one of the exhausted children Brandt took out of the camp on his arms."
After the official laying of flowers and wreaths at the monument and a small musical presentation by the band of the Moscow Cadet School of Music, participants in the rally will proceed the Museum in Memory of the Fallen Soldiers located by the Victory Memorial.
"A photo display devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow will open there," Savin said.
The memorial in honor of Red Army’s Victory over Nazi Germany is located in the very center of Netanya on the picturesque seashore, next to Beit Yad Lebanim memorial compound commemorating the soldiers who died in different wars defending the State of Israel.
Visitors approach the monument through a dark labyrinth - a zigzag-like passage faced with black stone, the turns of which emblematize the main tragic moments in the history of the Jewish people. At a certain moment, the visitors moving by the passage see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ and then they get out into a sunlit circular space overlooking the sea.
Installed at the center of the ground is a sculpture in the form of a dove’s wings that traditionally serve as a symbol of peace and good-heartedness, as well as a link between man and the heavenly world.
According to Mikhail Savin, the events included in the Days of Moscow program will take place from April 25 through April 27 this year. "They’re held in Israel regularly with support from the RJC," he said.
"We take there the WW II veterans, former inmates of ghettos and death camps, popular politicians, public personalities, and diplomats from Israel, Russia and other countries," Savin said.
The program of the Days embraces four Israeli cities this year - Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Netanya, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in Israel told TASS. The list of events includes a business forum, negotiations, meetings, roundtables on cooperation in the economy and technologies, photo exhibitions, sports competitions, and concerts by Russian performers.
As part of the program, Netanya hosts an exhibition titled ‘The Russian Outer Space’ where the photos made by Russian cosmonauts are put up for display.