Belarus remembers victims of Holocaust - Why is it especially important now?

Today we remember the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust. During the war, the German Nazis exterminated about six million Jews. It would seem that the whole world has learned these terrible lessons. But alas. Today no one can guarantee that what happened will not happen again.

80 years ago, the fragile truth of "Peace in the World" did not become an argument against the deeds for the Nazis. They ruthlessly incinerated every living thing in their name. The goal was to increase their nation with "pure" blood. Two out of every three Jews living in Europe before the war were murdered. The total figure is over 6 million victims.

Over 800,000 people of Jewish nationality were exterminated in the territory of Belarus. There were 378 villages and towns where a ghetto was a must. A wire-fenced condemnation to death. The largest ghetto in terms of the number of prisoners, 120,000, was the Minsk ghetto. Only less than 10% survived.

Frieda Reisman, a prisoner of the Minsk ghetto:

“Every morning dead people were brought to the doorstep, who died of hunger and cold. I can't even imagine it. The Germans were very sophisticated. They took a tiny child by the leg and beat his head against the corner of the house. A river of blood ran down the curb.”

800 days of constant pogroms at night, shootings for an allegedly stolen loaf of bread, off-duty work and exhaustion. Today these facts of rape are revealed in books and scripts.

A chronicle of the Minsk ghetto was presented by the legendary journalist Boris Gersten. The memories of surviving young inmates were also documented in a documentary by Russia Today South African reporter Paula Slier.

Yakov Kravchinsky, a prisoner of the Minsk ghetto:

“Some people claim that if the Germans had won, we'd be sitting around drinking beer right now. I always answer to such statements. May be someone would drink, but not you. No more than 25% of the population of Belarus should have been left. Those are the ones who could have served the Germans. And the rest were supposed to die.”

On the eve of the Holocaust, Ghetto prisoners, representatives of denominations, Jewish communities and diplomats gathered again to remind the public: the scale of the Holocaust must not be belittled. The calculated cruelty and unprecedented horror is a fact that must have no place today or in the future.