Bones of Wehrmacht soldiers to be shipped back from Belarus to Germany or should we remember agreements and conscience?

A few hundred kilometers away from us, the feat of Soviet soldiers is literally being wiped out. Thus, in the next few months, the Latvian authorities will remove more than 300 monuments.

Are historical facts an argument for those who have suddenly become Russophobes? In the Latvian town of Jekabpils, a Soviet monument was demolished and a war grave was discovered. Instead of exhuming it, official Riga demolished it with diggers, and the Polish authorities turned the demolition into a celebration, dance a jig on bones and broadcasting it all live on YouTube.

We would like to remind the leadership of some Western countries that there are two cemeteries of Wehrmacht soldiers in Belarus today.  They are located near Bobruisk and Bereza. Each has more than 30,000 remains that were found in independent Belarus and lifted from the ground by the 52nd search battalion of the Armed Forces of Belarus.

We don't honor it. But we allowed the German War Graves Commission to work. And we allocated land in order to conduct war graves, those who committed unspeakable atrocities on our land. 

Now there  is peace and quiet in these cemeteries. Yet, the journalistic community has recently wondered whether these remains could be sent back to Germany in a freight train. Lidia Zablotskaya continues.

Across the road from the national pantheon of the whole country, the “Eastern” (or, as it is also called, “Moscow”) cemetery today, there is a fenced-off forest. Judging by the research of historians of the Academy of Sciences, it was here that 3 thousand soldiers were prestigiously buried.

Nobody danced on the bones, but nobody wanted to talk about them either. German prisoners of war dying at the end of 1940s were not left to rot outside, but were also consigned to the ground in the Christian way.

Nikolai Borisenko, head of the Mogilev regional historical and patriotic search club "Vikkru":

After the war, by decision of the Common State Government, the construction of a factory of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation of the USSR was continued here. And in order to use as a workforce on the territory of the present Kirov automobile plant, a camp of German prisoners of war for 2 thousand people was organized.

Mogilev

The  prisoners were even treated in hospitals. The houses, once surrounded by barbed wire, are still there today (are already just apartment buildings). Those who were dying (there were Romanians, Hungarians, and Germans) were buried not far from the village.

This cemetery near Mogilev is not on any registry, neither in the State Register, nor even with the German War Graves Commission.

Bereza

The German War Graves Commission has been functioning in Belarus since 2002. Its main function is to discover the remains, take them out of the ground and rebury them in a specially designated place. There is just one of them behind us. This is a German cemetery near Bereza. It is literally 10 kilometers off the district center and only 500 meters from the famous “Olympic”. The German War Graves Commission itself declined to offer comment, but emphasizes that it is not a memorial, but just a grave site of one and a half hectares.

In 2005, they began to carry out work to discover and raise the graves of Wehrmacht soldiers. The intergovernmental agreement between Belarus and Germany signed in 1994 also allowed this process. Remember that time: after the collapse of the Soviet Union the young country was ready to sign immediately documents and agreements, if only the iron curtain would open. The essence of the document is to take care of war graves. 

At the first, the Germans also looked after the Soviet cemeteries in Germany. But if they only looked after them there, then we launched a large campaign of exhumation and reburial.

By the way, not the Germans were digging, but  even the 52nd Separate Specialized Search Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus. Only they have an official permission for exhumation. Thus, according to statistics, about 5000 soldiers of the Wehrmacht used to be “raised” annually. The search parties also help.

Mogilev

Nikolai Borisenko, head of the Mogilev regional historical and patriotic search club "Vikkru:

Working on the issues of Soviet soldiers missing, dead, not buried on battlefields, we constantly encounter German ones. As soon as we find Wehrmacht soldiers, we immediately report to the German War Graves Commission. They have their representatives in the regions. And they go out, take them away and rebury them in the allocated cemeteries. We have, as Red Army searchers, officially registered, working with the 52nd search battalion, no interest in this. And it's unlikely we'll get any. We have a completely different attitude toward that side. 

The first remains discovered (including those in front of the capital's “Eastern” cemetery) were taken in Bereza in September 2005.

Bereza

It looks like a huge mass grave, every step is someone's coffin.

Elizaveta Mshar, local history expert

"I will speak directly for the veterans, of whom we had a great many. They were very negative about it all. They spoke out about the fact that they were killing our soldiers. Civilians were killed. And "why do we need them here, they should be sent to Germany."

Vladimir Sergeev, Chairman of the Bereza District Council of Veterans:

They are still the enemy. But we do not and will not make politics on the bones. We act in a Christian way, because the Belarusian citizen, the Belarusian people are peace-loving by nature. Instead of this German to be on German territory, to die in his bed, to be buried in his cemetery, so that his relatives, grandchildren, great-grandchildren would visit him. No, you had to come to Belarus. Well, if you came, you got it. So here they are.

Minsk District

If here in the prefabricated cemetery the dead are calling for peace, the memorial stone on the grave of prisoners of war in the village of Tarasovo, in Minsk District, directly demands: “Honor their memory”. The memory of thousands who supported fascism. People here are not only from Germany. This memorial stone appeared in the 90s. Even before the first standards.

In 2009, the request comes again: there is not enough space near Bereza, can we get some more? The Belarusians again allocated land for another prefabricated cemetery for the Nazis.

Mogilev

Pyotr Mudragelov, chairman of the district organization of the Oktyabrsky District of Mogilev, a peacekeeping-soldier, colonel:

There was a condition that the cemetery must be modest, must not be any supernatural monuments. It should not differ from the monuments and cemeteries where our soldiers are buried.

Bobruisk District

So, we identified a field near the village of Shchatkovo. Everything is closed by the woodland, to get to it, you have to overcome several steep turns, it is not so fast to find it. There are about 32 thousand remains. The cemetery is a copy of the one near Bereza. If earlier, the cemetery was visited by diplomats and visitors from Europe, today there is not a single person to be seen here.

Zinaida Penkova, honored employee of education of the Republic of Belarus, chairman of Mogilev city organization of veterans:

We don't have vandalism in such cemeteries either. Of course, we demand and ask that our graves be treated in the same way. Today is a difficult time. It is very painful for us. But at the same time, given the decency of the Belarusian people, we take care of these cemeteries.

Even war children, those who saw the destruction in the concentration camps, the throwing of children into pits and then grenades, how they were hanged, broken, beaten and shot. Even this people, after a while, were able to get out of mind the hatred. Without respect, but they just silently accept the pleas of the Europeans to bury their soldiers.

While, behind the border, graves are being uncovered and showy disco parties are being held on the bones.

Petr Mudragelov, chairman of the district organization of the Oktyabrsky District of Mogilev, a peacekeeping-soldier, colonel:

Those who came to us with the sword are buried here. And as long as we have a proverb, who comes to us sword in hand, shall perish by the sword. And the victors are buried there. Those who liberated Europe, those who defeated fascism. Belarusians are so humane that they allow such burials on the territory of their country.

What other arguments are needed to stop the violence of history? Over the life of every third Belarusian cut short by the fascists? Does the leadership of the West remember our voluntary gesture and where is the concern for burials in return? It is time to remember international norms and agreements. It is time to remember conscience. If, of course, it is still relevant to speak about it.