The Parade of Winners

The International Photography Competition in Israel dedicated

to the 65^th Great Patriotic War Victory Anniversary

The Parade of Winners

The International Photography Competition in Israel dedicated to the 65^th Great Patriotic War Victory Anniversary

On May 9, 2010, Russia marked the 65th anniversary of the USSR victory over the Nazi Germany. This war carried away lives of twenty seven million Soviet people, and each Russian family still keeps memory of losses, pride for the Great Victory and stories of fathers and grandfathers who have fought in the war. May the 9th became a state holiday in Israel, and the Victory Parade is held in both capitals, Moscow and Jerusalem.

According to the Center of the Jewish History, about half-million Jews fought in the ranks of the Red Army; half of them perished. Quite a number of Jews served as commanders, generals and senior officers, thousands were awarded for services in battle, 157 were given the highest military award, the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (Jews hold the fifth place among the nationalities honored with this title). 160,000 Jewish soldiers were conferred military medals and decorations of various degrees.

Jews-soldiers bravely fought against Nazis in army units of the USA, Britain, France, Yugoslavia, Poland, Belgium and Czechoslovakia. Tens thousands of Jews fought in guerrilla groups in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, in fighting groups in Belgium and Holland and groups of Resistance in France.

“We shall always remember the victory that has relieved the world of the threat of Fascist tyranny. The Jews fought shoulder to shoulder with other USSR peoples; many of the Jews-veterans live in Russia, Israel and other states,” said the joint statement of Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the solemn torch-lighting ceremony of the Israel Independence Day held in April 19, 2010 on the Herzl Mountain in Jerusalem, one of the torches was ignited by Avraam Greenside, a former Red Army scout, now the Chairman of All-Israeli Union of the Second World War veterans. He noted that for the Jewish people, the war in which six million sons of Israel perished, was not only an event of unparalleled cruelty in the history of mankind, but also a case of the highest heroism. As Greenside pointed out, “In the Soviet Army alone, about half-million Jews had fought. Twenty thousand veterans of the Great Patriotic War from different countries arrived in Israel.”

The Israeli International Photography Competition is the first large cultural action in the field of photography dedicated to this great event. Its initiator was the well-known photo-artist Leonid Padrul in cooperation with the producer agency Kwitkowski Art. 34 photographers from Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan take part in the exhibit. About hundred interesting and original works selected by competition’s Organizing Committee will be presented.

Authors of the photographs managed to render a unique atmosphere of this “holiday with tears in the eyes” held in different locations: in Moscow, Jerusalem, Kiev, in a small Kazakh village of Aksu and other places. At the exhibition one can see photos of the Victory Parade in the Red Square in Moscow and respective ceremonies at the National Memorial of the Holocaust and Heroism Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, at Latrun Museum-Memorial, at the Holocaust Victims’ Memorial in Berlin. On the numerous photographs, the war veterans are seen walking in the streets of Jerusalem, Moscow, Minsk, Haifa, Kiev, Sevastopol, Pavlodar, Bat Yam and other cities.

Festive pictures go with the tragical ones made in the grass overgrown former death camp of Majdanek, with photos of heavy concrete plates in central Berlin and a number tatooed on the hand of a former concentration camp prisoner. On many of the shots, the impressive faces of the people who had had this terrible experience are captured. The contemporary pictures of the Victory Day celebration are combined with photos of medals, front letters and other archival evidence of the hard war time.

By this exhibition the organizers wanted to honor the memory of the Second World War victims, to remind of tragedy, human losses and courage of the Red army soldiers who defeated Nazism. We hope that the exhibition Parade of Winners will be shown not only in Israel but also abroad and that the international competition will become annual and will unite efforts of photographers from different countries in their aspiration to keep the remembrance for the future generations.

In the last four years the Kwitkowski Art agency carried out several large non-profit photographic projects. The photo art festival of the country’s immigrants titled ‘Israel: Another View,’ is held annually since 2007 with the support of the Absorption Ministry and the Center of Immigrant Art Workers’ Support. Since early 2010, a part of the festival’s items is shown in the CIS countries with Nativ support. Besides, in 2009, a photo festival ‘On the Road to Eilat’ and the exhibition ‘The Shadow of Jerusalem’ by Leonid Padrul were shown with success in Moscow, Bangkok, Manila, Copenhagen, Minsk and Hanoi, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel. The agency’s activities are focused on progress and support of photo art in Israel.

We express deep gratitude for support of the competition-exhibit project ‘Parade of Winners’ to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Israel, to Tel-Aviv University Club Beit Yarok, as well as to the Association of Russian-speaking Journalists of Israel and the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War Two, without which a successful realization of this project would be impossible.

Kwitkowski Art

P.O.B. 17061, Tel-Aviv 61170,  Israel

up