Four persons awarded on eve of Holocaust Memorial Day

On Wednesday evening, on the eve of the Memorial Day for Victims of the Holocaust and Racial Violence which Slovakia commemorates on September 9, Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok (a Freedom and Solidarity/SaS nominee) awarded a gold plaque to four personalities who've been involved in the development of cultural and inter-religious dialogue, the promotion of tolerance, the education of the younger generation and the fight against discrimination in society. The awards were given to Marta Gyoriova, the president of the nationwide organisation of Jewish women called the 'Ester Association', musician and conductor Jack Martin Handler, Holocaust survivor Naftali Furst, who was imprisoned as a boy in the labour and concentration camp in Sered (Trnava region) and other Nazi camps, and in memoriam to Slovak diplomat Jan Spisiak, who during his work in Budapest and contrary to the official instructions of the Slovak state, helped several Jews by issuing documents and visas.