MINSK, 22 June (BelTA) – A commemorative meeting was held in the Trostenets memorial complex on 22 June, BelTA has learned.
About a thousand Minsk residents, including the city officials, representatives of law enforcement agencies, trade unions, political parties, public and youth organizations, gathered on the site of the former death camp Trostenets, the fourth largest after Auschwitz, Maidanek and Treblinka in terms of the number of victims.
Belarus president's aide in Minsk Aleksandr Barsukov said that the courage of the Fatherland defenders, the dedication of the people helped to accomplish the impossible. A carefully prepared, powerful offensive of the enemy tripped over the love for the Motherland of hundreds of thousands, millions of people. The strong partisan movement in Belarus pulled back huge German military forces from the front lines. The Nazis committed atrocities here, resorting to the help of collaborators. "Today is a tragic date," he said. "More than 200,000 people were tortured and killed here. Can you imagine what was going on here? What did people go through? We still can't recover from what happened."
According to official data, a total of 206,500 people died in the Trostenets camp (according to the unofficial data, more than twice as many). These were civilians from Belarus, including prisoners of the Minsk ghetto, Soviet prisoners of war, anti-fascist underground fighters and partisans, Jews from Western Europe deported to Minsk for annihilation. The scale of the extermination was horrific (people were tortured, beaten, shot and burned). There are four sites on the grounds of the former camp holding the ashes of the dead: Ditch Graves in Blagovshchina, Pit-Furnace in Shashkovka, Burial Field and the Shed.
On 22 June 2015, Trostenets Memorial with a 10-meter central monument Gate of Memory was opened at the site of the death camp. Today, its foot is covered with flowers. Bells rang, prayers were said and a minute of silence was observed in the memory of the victims.
Commemorative events marking the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War were held across the country on 22 June. People bowed their heads in a minute of silence to honor the memory of the fallen at mass graves and memorials in every district of the capital, at the Eternal Flame on Victory Square. Words of gratitude to the liberators for a free country and a peaceful sky are said at different meetings, round tables and dialogue platforms.
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