BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentina inaugurated a Righteous Among the Nations promenade and national monument honoring the memory of Holocaust victims.
The monument honoring 26 non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust was inaugurated Tuesday in Buenos Aires ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday. The promenade and monument are located in the city’s Palermo zone, in the Palermo woods, an area similar to Central Park in New York City.
Argentine government officials, including the culture minister and the secretary of human rights, as well as Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, and Jewish leaders attended the ceremony.
President Mauricio Macri, who supported the project when he served as Buenos Aires City mayor, sent a recorded message.
“I feel very proud that we can inaugurate the long-awaited Shoah memorial, which confirms the values of coexistence, just when throughout the world there is a feeling that violence is winning,” Macri said. “Today we will show from Argentina, with the largest Jewish community in Latin America and also the largest Muslim community in Latin America, that we can live in respect and peace.”
On Monday night, Macri met with the 23 Argentine Holocaust survivors at the government Pink House.
The new promenade features prominently on the city’s website, which features the list of righteous gentiles named on the memorial, and in its report on the city’s cultural agenda.
Jewish groups boycotted last year’s official International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies in Argentina to protest the government’s handling of the still-unexplained death of AMIA Jewish center special prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
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