MINSK, 14 June (BelTA) – The traveling exhibition Maly Trostenets Death Camp. History and Memory went on display in the House of Austrian History in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on 13 June, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Embassy in Austria.
The exhibition has been organized jointly by the Dortmund International Education Center, the Minsk Johannes Rau International Center for Education and Exchange, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Foundation with participation of several Austrian research and public organizations. Part of the exhibition features materials dedicated to Austrian victims of the Maly Trostenets death camp.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen took part in the opening ceremony. The president stressed the importance of understanding the Holocaust tragedy for Austria. The Austrian president together with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took part in the solemn opening ceremony of the Trostenets memorial complex after the completion of its second construction stage in June 2018. Alexander Van der Bellen said that Belarus has put up a great monument to commemorate the victims. He commended Belarus-Austria cooperation to set up the Array of Names memorial which was unveiled in March 2019 by Aleksandr Lukashenko and the then Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Austria Alena Kupchyna, who also took part in the event, noted that the exhibition is symbolic as it brings back to the Austrian capital memories of its citizens who never returned home from the death camp in Maly Trostenets. The ambassador pointed out the importance of joint efforts to preserve the memory of victims of Nazism to deepen understanding between various nations and keep peace.
Also attending the event were President of the Austrian Jewish Community Oskar Deutsch, Chairman of the Dortmund International Education Center Matthias Tuempel, Head of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Foundation Uwe Neumaerker, and Waltraud Barton, Head of the Austrian public organization IM-MER which has been working to commemorate Trostenets victims for many years. They noted that Belarus, which suffered terribly from the Nazi occupation, is now devoting considerable effort to commemorate Holocaust victims.
The Maly Trostenets Death Camp. History and Memory exhibition will stay open in the House of Austrian History till 27 October.
