11 December 2025, 13:50

Krutoi: Belarusian genocide is the nation’s pain, not just a historical fact

Dmitry Krutoi

MINSK, 11 December (BelTA) - The genocide of the Belarusian people is not merely the recording of a tragic episode in history, it is the pain of millions, Head of the Belarus President Administration Dmitry Krutoi said in his greeting speech to participants of international conference to mark the 77th anniversary of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in Minsk on 11 December, BelTA has learned.

In his address, the head of the Belarus President Administration first turned to historical memory, noting that the Great Patriotic War was a time of severe trials for the Belarusian people, especially for those who found themselves in territories occupied by the Nazis.

“The German Reich initially planned to deport and exterminate more than 70% of the population of Belarus. As the Nazis stated, they wanted to clear new ‘living space’ for Germans. Literally within the first hours of the war, during the Wehrmacht’s advance, several Polesie villages were burned along with their inhabitants. It was not some punitive battalions or Einsatzgruppen doing the burning, but regular military units, and not in retaliation for the actions of our partisans and underground fighters, but proceeding ruthlessly towards a pre-planned goal,” the address stated.

In the first days of the war, a concentration camp was set up near Minsk, in Drozdy, into which the occupiers herded more than 100,000 prisoners of war, as well as members of the civilian population. The camp was liquidated in September 1941. During its three months of existence, about 10,000 prisoners were shot or died of starvation. This is but a small episode in the work of a ruthless system of extermination, a veritable death machine created by the fascists on the territory of Belarus and other Soviet republics during the war.

“Therefore, the topic of the genocide of the Belarusian people is not merely the recording of some tragic episode in history. It is the pain of millions of people who lost their loved ones during the war, the fate of many of whom remains unknown to this day,” Dmitry Krutoi emphasized. “It is the collective memory of generations and the behest of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers to future descendants - to know, remember, and honor both the heroes of the war and the innocent victims of this war.”

The head of the Belarus President Administration noted that it is a duty to firmly and unwaveringly defend the historical truth for the sake of those who perished defending their native land. “Only through understanding the past can we build a future based on respect for human dignity, freedom, and justice. It is extremely important that our youth know this and take a direct part in the search work to establish the identities of the unknown fallen, to preserve the truth about the Great Patriotic War, and the legacy of the heroes - veterans, front-line soldiers, partisans, underground fighters, and home front workers. This is important and necessary for all of humanity,” he stated.

At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that fascism did not at all lay down its arms in the victorious year of 1945 and thirsts for revenge. If the resurgence of Nazism is not halted, the horrors may repeat themselves.

Dmitry Krutoi drew attention to the questions facing society today: how to convey the scale of the genocide of the Belarusian people to a wide audience, especially young people; how to effectively counter even the slightest attempts to falsify history; and what more must be done to ensure the tragic events are never repeated. He is convinced that answers to these and other questions are impossible without open, honest, and public dialogue, scientific research, and close cooperation among all stakeholders at both the national and international levels.