Ha'aretz - 07.22.2005

Ha'aretz

Two new Holocaust memorials to be unveiled in Estonia

By The Associated Press

Two new Holocaust memorials will be unveiled in Estonia on the sites of former Nazi concentration and labor camps, officials said Friday.

They are the first of 22 planned memorials for the thousands of Jews who perished in Nazi camps in the Baltic country during World War II, Culture Ministry spokeswoman Marju Reismaa said.

Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, Israeli Ambassador Shemi Zur and Holocaust survivors will take part in an unveiling ceremony Sunday for the gray marble memorial stone at the former concentration camp in Klooga, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of the capital, Tallinn.

Representatives of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Aboard will also take part in the Klooga ceremony, the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn said.

Another memorial is to be unveiled Monday in the eastern town of Kivioli, where a Nazi labor camp was located during World War II. Three more memorial stones are to be set up later in the week.

Thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe were deported to Nazi camps in Estonia during the 1941-1944 German occupation. 

The International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity has estimated that some 10,000 Jews deported to Estonia from Germany, Lithuania, Poland and other countries were killed there during World War II. Some 1,000 Estonian Jews are estimated to have been killed during the German occupation.