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20 March 2019, 18:24

Remains of Jewish ghetto victims found in Brest to be reburied in May

BREST, 20 March (BelTA) – The remains of the Jewish ghetto victims found on a construction site in Brest will be reburied in May, Brest Mayor Alexander Rogachuk said as he visited the mass grave together with Ambassador of Israel to Belarus Alon Shoham, BelTA has learned.

The remains of 1,140 victims of the Jewish ghetto were found on the construction site in Kuibysheva Street. The Defense Ministry search unit is completing its work on the site. The excavation will be completed next week. The surrounding area was throughly examined. No remains were found there. The remains will be reburied in the mass grave in Severonoye Cemetery of Brest where a monument to the Jewish ghetto victims was installed in 2011.

“We are planning to hold a ceremony to rebury the remains of about 1,300 people in May, after the Radunitsa Dead Remembrance Day, with participation of representatives of the general public,” Alexander Rogachuk said. “Since the discovery of the remains we have been in constant contact with the Jewish community, the rabbi. We will do everything in accordance with the the canons,” he noted.

Ambassador Alon Shoham noted that the situation when the remains of ghetto victims are found is not unique: we still hear the tragic echo of the war in different parts of the world. “I think that Brest is an example of how local authorities should address such a situation,” the ambassador said. He also stressed that “it is important to teach our children to make sure that such things should never be repeated. It is also important to pay tribute to the dead.”

The Brest mayor shared his vision of a future monument which will be built in the place of the current excavations. “We must seek new forms to tell about the war. I am not talking about memorial plaques but some visualization of the tragedy that happened here more than 70 years ago. This should cut to the heart of young residents of the city, tourists. We will work closely with the community and probably announce a contest. In Budapest there is a monument to the Holocaust. We must not copy but should think along these lines: touching, emotional,” the mayor noted.

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