On August 12, new commemorative plaques were unveiled in Moscow as part of the 'Last Address' project.

Photo: Yacov Livne's Facebook 

On August 12, through the efforts of activists and staff of the "Last Address" project, two memorial plaques were installed in Moscow. One of them, located at 13 Leninsky Prospekt, was dedicated to the memory of the prominent Jewish biochemist, Academician Yakub Oskarovich Parnas. Parnas, arrested in late January 1949 for "conducting espionage activities against the USSR on behalf of a foreign state," died in prison. He was exonerated in 1954 "due to the absence of a crime in his actions."

The second plaque was installed at 36 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street in memory of the outstanding Jewish poet, novelist, and playwright Peretz Davidovich Markish. Markish, a member of the presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was executed along with 12 other JAC members on August 12, 1952, and was posthumously exonerated in 1955.

Earlier this year, the International Memorial in Moscow hosted the premiere screening of the documentary film "The Markish Case," a unique six-part documentary project by the Babel Bookstore (Tel Aviv) and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

All episodes of the film are available on the EAJC YouTube channel.

In the near future, with the support of the EAJC, the documentary novel "From Line to Line" by David Markish, son of Peretz Markish, will be published.

The EAJC was pleased to assist in the translation and publication of this work, which serves as another piece of memory regarding the repressions of the Stalinist regime against Jews. In the book, written in Hebrew, the author tells the story of his father and the destruction of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. "This is an important book—both for me and for the Jewish people," confessed D. Markish in a personal letter to the EAJC Director General, Dr. Haim Ben Yakov.