Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar has called on the international community to resolutely stop any measures to promote fascist ideas.

“The war against fascism ended 65 years ago. But the fight against this criminal ideology continues even today. Force can and should be used to seize weapons from the hands of those who are spreading such vicious ideas. It is a task of statesmen and general,” Lazar said in an address to participants in a Berlin-based international conference titled The Lessons of World War II and the Holocaust.

However, “lengthy and scrupulous work should be conducted to punch these ideas out of their brains,” he said.

Conditions need to be created that will make “the promotion of genocide ideas not only illegitimate, but also unthinkable,” the religious leader said.

“Fascism, as a political organization, was defeated, and its leaders received their deserved punishment. But fascism was not so much a military force as a spiteful mankind-hating ideology, which then turned into a state policy, concentration camps and gas chambers. And this ideology is still alive,” Lazar said.

The echo of this ideology can be heard “in speeches of Middle Eastern politicians who openly call for the elimination of the Jews and the Jewish state,” he said.

“Regrettably, we can also hear it in speeches of some European officials, who are trying to justify their country fellowmen who served Hitler,” he added.

(Source: Interfax)