Vitebsk marked the International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps.

Vitebsk marked the International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps.

During the Second World War, thousands of concentration camps operated in Germany, its allied countries, and occupied territories. Their prisoners were burned in crematoria furnaces, sometimes alive, gassed, tortured, raped, and starved. Furthermore, they were forced to work to exhaustion, their blood was taken for Wehrmacht soldiers, and medical experiments were conducted, testing new drugs on people.

On April 11, 1945, Buchenwald (Germany) was liberated. However, on the eve of this, an armed uprising broke out there, so the prisoners had already managed to take control of the death camp by the time the servicemen arrived. Thanks to this, the Nazis did not manage to cover up the traces of their crimes. It was on this day that the International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps began to be observed.

In Vitebsk, a rally was held at the "5th Regiment" memorial complex, located on the site of the former Stalag No. 313. The event was attended by heads of the region and the city, representatives of work collectives, educational institutions, and public organizations, and witnesses of those terrible events. They laid flowers and wreaths at the monument and honored the memory of the victims of Nazism with a minute of silence.

— Our memory is eternal. It will live forever in the hearts of Belarusians, because it is impossible to forget the bloody atrocities committed by the invaders during the Great Patriotic War, — said Petr Podgursky, Head of the Department of Culture of the Regional Executive Committee. — Almost 80 years have passed since the end of the war. It is equally important for current generations to know the truth about the atrocities of the Hitlerites. Recently, new information about the genocide of the Belarusian people has emerged — the Prosecutor General's Office has initiated a corresponding criminal case. Therefore, we can respond convincingly to modern challenges and react promptly to ongoing geopolitical processes. The situation in the world is tense. We are experiencing the effects of hybrid warfare technologies.

The bloody and brutal war spared no one, not even the elderly or children. Of those who ended up in the dungeons, only one in twelve survived. The International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946 recognized that the detention of civilian citizens of foreign states and their use for Germany's benefit was not only a war crime but also a crime against humanity. For example, the death camp "5th Regiment" operated from the beginning of the occupation until the liberation of Vitebsk. Tens of thousands of people passed through it, the majority of whom perished.

Today, there are just over 2,000 former prisoners remaining in the Vitebsk region. Many of them were children when they were in places of mass extermination. Today, they are the last living witnesses of brutal fascist terror.

— We bow our heads low to those who survived, — noted Petr Podgursky. — We thank them for their feat and selfless work in the post-war period.

Source: vitebsk-region.gov.by