27 января 2021
For Belarusians, the memory of the Holocaust tragedy is sacred. Terrible events of that war should become a reliable inoculation against neo-Nazism, ethnic and religious hatred - this was the keynote of the mourning meeting in Minsk. At the memorial "Pit" representatives of the authorities, deputy and diplomatic corps, Jewish communities observed a moment of silence in memory of the victims. Flowers at the foot of the monument became a visible symbol of enduring grief, which is inherited by generation after generation. Belarus is doing a lot to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, says Ambassador of Israel to Belarus Alex Goldman Shayman.
Our country remembers the tragedy of the Belarusian and world Jewry and cherishes its memory with reverence. And here, in the place of death, one feels the danger of neo-Nazi revenge especially keenly, said Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei.
Vladimir Makei, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus: "Belarus has always regarded Holocaust as its own pain, as a bleeding wound that never heals. Our country went through all the horrors of Hitler's genocide. Nazism has left a terrible legacy in Belarus: more than 260 concentration camps and places of mass extermination, including more than 70 Jewish ghettos. More than 200 towns and 9,000 villages were looted, burned and turned into ruins. Millions of our compatriots perished. Unfortunately, against the background of the rapidly growing political and social instability in the world, certain countries are increasingly trying to falsify the history of the Second World War, to whitewash the crimes of the Third Reich and to portray the Nazi executioners and their accomplices as heroes. In Belarus we find this unacceptable. Our country, being faithful to the memory of the victims of Nazism, will consistently oppose it".
Action of the opposition at the "Pit" memorial
It's even more strange, even scary to see attempts to speculate on the subject of the Holocaust. These are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the generation of victors. These are the people whose grandfathers gave their lives for our land and our people, and not to have politicized actions held today on the places sacred to every Belarusian, designed to put our heroic history in the service of the interests of nobody knows who, but certainly not the interests of the Belarusian people. This story provoked a strong reaction from Belarusian and foreign Jews. The Holocaust is a tragedy which it is inappropriate to politicize.
