MINSK, 1 April (BelTA) – The Council of the Republic, the upper house of the Belarusian parliament, has passed an address to the national parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany in connection with the non-invitation of Belarusian officials to attend commemorative events to mark the anniversary of liberation of the concentration camps Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora. The address was adopted at a meeting of the eighth session of the Council of the Republic of the seventh convocation, BelTA has learned.
It was with deep regret that the Council of the Republic learned about the decision of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation not to invite Belarusian officials to attend commemorative events to mark the 77th anniversary of liberation of these concentration camps.
“Our country knows the price of the Victory. No other country in Europe suffered as much as Belarus did during the Great Patriotic War. After occupying Belarus, the Nazis established a cruel regime of lawlessness, violence, robbery and monstrous terror. Their goal was to completely enslave, plunder and brutally exterminate the population. Numerous Nazi camps, ghettos and prisons were set up all over Belarus. The whole world knows the names of the places related to the genocide of the Belarusian people: Khatyn, Dalva, Ozarichi, Shunevka, Trostenets. Hostilities and large-scale punitive operations led to huge human losses: every third resident of Belarus or about 3 million people died during the war,” the upper house of the Belarusian parliament noted.
Sacredly keeping the memory of these events, the Belarusians have always striven and will continue to strive for a peaceful settlement of all conflicts. “We condemn the decision of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation and demand an opportunity to pay tribute to the prisoners of these concentration camps. This is our common grief and pain. We mourn everyone who died in the terrible carnage of war and we will honor the memory of all the victims of Nazism anyway. We call on our fellow German parliamentarians to oppose such unfriendly moves and prevent this from happening in the future. We strongly believe that by joint efforts we will be able to continue cooperation to maintain peace and security in our region, to preserve historical memory, to facilitate mutual reconciliation and to strive for a better future,” the Council of the Republic stressed.
