OZARICHI, 19 March (BelTA) - A commemorative rally to mark the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Ozarichi death camp was held in the Ozarichi memorial complex on 19 March, BelTA learned.
The meeting brought together former prisoners of the Ozarichi death camp, regional and district authorities, representatives of the deputy corps, labor collectives, public organizations and young people.
“Years pass, but the pain of loss does not get easier, the memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War is not erased from the people's memory,” Deputy Chairman of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee Dmitry Aleinikov said as he addressed the rally.
“One of the most heinous crimes of the Nazis in Gomel Oblast was the Ozarichi death camp, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians. It is impossible to speak about it here, near the memorial of grief built in memory of those terrible events, in the place where innocent people - old men, women, children - were condemned to suffering. Without food, without shelter, in the open air, amidst epidemics and torture,” he said.
According to Dmitry Aleinikov, the tragedy of Ozarichi has become an eternal reminder of the inhumanity of war and the price of peace. “Every stone here, every inch of land is soaked with suffering. We bow our heads before the victims whose lives were cut short in this hell. Before those who survived, carrying the non-healing wounds through the years. Their courage is a lesson of fortitude for all of us,” he said.
.......
The meeting brought together former prisoners of the Ozarichi death camp, regional and district authorities, representatives of the deputy corps, labor collectives, public organizations and young people.
“Years pass, but the pain of loss does not get easier, the memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War is not erased from the people's memory,” Deputy Chairman of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee Dmitry Aleinikov said as he addressed the rally.
“One of the most heinous crimes of the Nazis in Gomel Oblast was the Ozarichi death camp, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians. It is impossible to speak about it here, near the memorial of grief built in memory of those terrible events, in the place where innocent people - old men, women, children - were condemned to suffering. Without food, without shelter, in the open air, amidst epidemics and torture,” he said.
According to Dmitry Aleinikov, the tragedy of Ozarichi has become an eternal reminder of the inhumanity of war and the price of peace. “Every stone here, every inch of land is soaked with suffering. We bow our heads before the victims whose lives were cut short in this hell. Before those who survived, carrying the non-healing wounds through the years. Their courage is a lesson of fortitude for all of us,” he said.
He emphasized that Gomel Oblast, scorched by the fire of the Great Patriotic War, remembers hundreds of thousands of innocent victims tortured in death camps. “Ozarichi, Krasny Bereg, DULAG 121 - these names are forever inscribed in our history as symbols of pain and inhumanity. Memory, however, is not only grief, it is also responsibility. Responsibility for the truth about the war, about the atrocities of fascism not to be erased by time and to be passed from generation to generation,” Dmitry Aleinikov said.
The southeastern region of the country does a lot in this area. War memorials are being restored. Archival documents are becoming the basis for preserving history. Memory lessons teach young people to appreciate peace, the vice governor said.
“Our task is even deeper. We must resist any attempts to rewrite history, whitewash the crimes of Nazism, and divide peoples. Today, when the voices of hatred are again heard in the world, we must remember: evil starts in a small way - with indifference, with lies, with attempts to forget the past,” he said.
According to Nikolai Butsenko, Chairman of the Council of Kalinkovichi District Organization of the Belarusian Public Association of Veterans, the Belarusians remember the losses suffered by our people during the Great Patriotic War. “There is not a single family in Belarus that would not have suffered the grief of the war. A large number of soldiers who went to the front were killed or captured. Women, the elderly and children faced a long and hard occupation period, one of the black sides of which were the death camps.
It is impossible to read a description of the horrors that took place there without shuddering. The Nazis showed inhuman cruelty and ruthlessness to everyone. The executioners knew dozens of methods of killing and practiced them on elderly people and babies,” he said, referring to the terrible pages of history.
Nikolai Butsenko urged everyone to continue preserving the memory of terrible tragedies and passing it on to future generations.
Participants in the rally laid wreaths and flowers at the memorial.
The Ozarichi death camp was established in March 1944. It was here that a biological weapon, typhus, was first used. Typhus was used against Soviet soldiers of the 65th Army under General Pavel Batov to infect the enemy and facilitate the German army's withdrawal. Most of those imprisoned were children. According to historical estimates, by 19 March a total of 33,480 people were liberated, including 15,960 children under the age of 13, 14,000 women and over 4,000 elderly individuals. The camp existed for only ten days, but at least 20,000 people perished there.
The Ozarichi memorial complex was established in 1965 to commemorate the victims of the camp.
.......Follow us on:
