A meeting of mourning dedicated to Minsk ghetto tragedy held in Minsk (Photo)
1- 21.10.2008, 16:36
A meeting dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Minsk ghetto liquidation by the Nazi took place in the memorial complex “Yama” today.
More than a thousand people gathered, including representatives of foreign and Jewish organisations, ghetto prisoners, their children, as well as representatives of the youth democratic movement, Radio Svaboda informs.
Participants of the rally marched in a remembrance march from the memorial sign to ghetto victims till “Yama” memorial.
At the noon a commemorative event started at the “Yama” memorial. The head of the Committee on Religions and Nationalities’ Affairs leanid Hulyaka took part in the meeting.
During the event Israeli Ambassador Zeev Ben Arie, representatives of Russian organisations of Holocaust victims’ memory, German representatives delivered speeches.
German Ambassador to Belarus Gebhardt Weiss admitted that he was very touched and it was difficult for him to make a speech at the “Yama” memorial. The diplomat said that he belongs to the generation who often asked their parents, grandparents and neighbours about what had been happening at war, but often received no answer.
“But that does not mean that we can say that our generation bears no responsibility for what had been happening during the war. Our duty is to remember everything and do everything for this catastrophe not to repeat,” the Ambassador said.
The Constitution of the country is a proof that such things would never repeat from the side of Germany. It is written there that the dignity of a person cannot be impinged upon, Mr Weiss said at the meeting.
The events dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Minsk ghetto liquidation will last 3 days. They include conferences, exhibitions, unveiling of memorial signs in the places of mass executions of Jews in the years of the World War II.
65 years ago the Nazi invaders demolished Minsk ghetto and killed dozens thousands of Jews. Many of them were buried near Yubileynaya Square, on the place which is known now as the memorial complex “Yama”.
