Czechia. Piter Zikhrovsky, member of the Austrian ultra-right party "Liberty", said that many Czech Jews continue struggling for their rights after the previous government refused paying them compensations.

Pavel Rykhetsky, Vice Prime Minister of Czechia, called the statement of the ultra-right Austrian Jew-activist "an outrageous lie". He reminded that in 1998 a special government committee was created for investigating the fate of property, plundered during the Holocaust. Then the government allotted $8 million for indemnities for Holocaust survivors.

Yan Munk, President of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, in his turn, called the words of Piter Zikhrovsky "ridiculous".

Poland. Doctor Arnold Mostovich, who treated Jews in the Lodz ghetto during World War II, died in a Warsaw hospital after a long illness at the age of 87.

Mostovich wrote a few books, in which he chronically reflects all his years of work. He played an active role in the Ressistance and was sent to Oswiecim after the Lodz ghetto was destroyed in 1944.

Latvia. Valdis Kursitis, Head of the organization "Daugav Hawks", noted that the demonstration of "Vaffen SS" legionaries in Riga proved "another victory of legionaries over their enemies". Nikolay Romanovskis, Head of the Latvian Association of National Warriors, said that this was the 50th celebration in the legionaries' honor, and "it's nobody's business, how we are going to celebrate the event".

Romanovskis expressed indignation by the fact that Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Visental Center, compared legionaries to terrorists.

Romania. The Minister of Culture Razvan Teodoresku called the government to take the responsibility for deportation of Jewish population to Nazi death camps. He stated that Romania participated in the war as a Nazi ally and it bears the responsibility for Jewish executions.

Teodoresku stressed that the government adopted a number of laws against neo-Nazi, and is already working on the law on preserving Jewish cultural memorials and Jewish cemeteries.

Poland. The authorities turned down the protest of a group of Polish Jews against opening a new trade center near the former "Auschwitz" death camp. Yezhy Vroblevsky, Director of the State "Auschwitz" Museum, said that places of mass executions of Jews should be preserved as memorials. However, to his mind, the former camp is quite far from the place the trade complex is planned to be opened.

The city mayor Josef Kravchik also thinks that the protest demands are inadmissible.

Hungary. A social organization for creating a Holocaust center was established in the country. The center will include a museum that will be situated in the former synagogue building.

The French government suggested a 0,5 million-dollar aid to renovate the complex and create a Holocaust document center. The Center will be headed by representatives of the Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, the French and Hungarian governments, and the Hungarian Jewish community. The Center's equipment will be renewed this year. The document center and the museum itself will be ready in 2003. The Holocaust Center will be the second memorial after the "House of Terror", opened recently in Budapest.

Serbia. Zoran Dzhyndzhych, Prime Minister of Serbia, visited the Subotitsa synagogue. He promised government help in renovating the edifice, built in the art nouveau style in 1902.

Before World War II the Subotitsa Jewish population was about 6000 people. Most of them were deported to Aushwitz in 1944.

The organization responsible for the synagogue restoration will be headed by the former Subotitsa mayor Josef Kaztsa, presently Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia. Dzhyndzhych's visit coincided with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Subotitsa Jewish Women Association. It was visited by such respected guests as Princess Catarin, the Crowned Prince of Yugoslavia Alexander, and the former President of the International Jewish Women Council Dzhun Jacobs.