MINSK, 27 January (BelTA) - A solemn event on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day was held at the Yama Memorial in Minsk, BelTA has learned.
Representatives of the foreign diplomatic corps, international and public organizations, and religious communities laid flowers at the memorial. It was here that the Nazis killed about 5,000 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto on 2 March 1942.
Speaking at the event, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said that the Holocaust was an unprecedented crime against humanity. Out of 6 million Holocaust victims, more than 800,000 were killed by the Nazis on the Belarusian land.
"The Holocaust is not only the pain of the Jewish people. This is the pain of Belarus," the deputy minister said. "The new investigation of the Nazi crimes in Belarus testifies to their truly monstrous scale."
Both in the country and at international venues, Belarus is doing everything possible to preserve the memory of the war. This policy will be continued, Sergei Aleinik assured.
For his part, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Belarus Alex Goldman Shayman stressed that these things must always be remembered so that they never happen again. He noted that much is being done in Belarus to preserve the memory of the Holocaust tragedy, victims and heroes.
"Silence today leads to oblivion, and oblivion to a repetition of the tragedy tomorrow," the ambassador said.
