Charity concert held in Moscow in memory of perished journalists

Nadezhda Azhgikhina, Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that about fifteen hundred came today to the charity concert to the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire to commemorate the journalists who perished in performance of their professional duties.

The event was organized by the above Union and the Conservatoire; and the raised funds will be delivered to the bereaved families.

The performers received bouquets of flowers from the audience; they came down into the hall and gave all the flowers to the parents of those who died while performing their professional duties.

"It's no coincidence that the event was held on September 8. Julius Fucik was executed on this day in 1943," Georgy Karetnikov, one of the organizers of the memory concert, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Julius Fucik was a staunch anti-Nazi and a member of the Resistance during World War II. In April 1942, he was arrested by the Gestapo; and while in prison he wrote his famous book "Notes from the Gallows". In summer of 1943, Julius Fucik was thrown into a concentration camp in Germany, tortured and executed.

"I beg those who survive this time: don't forget! Don't forget them, either good or evil. Be patient to gather evidence of those who have fallen for themselves and for you," Lydia Taramova, one of the spectators, has recollected the words from Fucik's book.

"It's very sad and scary that journalists, whose duty to bring the truth to us, perish in a relatively peaceful time. It's our fault and the fault of our society that young and brilliant people are lost. The today's concert is a tribute to these remarkable people," Anatoly Levin, a conductor and Honoured Artist of Russia, told the "Caucasian Knot" after the charity concert.