70th anniversary of the Great Victory

VOLOZHIN, 2 July (BelTA) – A memorial slab to honor the memory of the civilians murdered by the Nazis was unveiled in the town of Volozhin (Minsk Oblast), BelTA has learned.

"We must remember the feat of our countrymen during the Great Patriotic War and cherish the peace which we paid a heavy price for. More than a million Soviet prisoners of war and civilians were killed by the Nazis in concentration camps on the Belarusian soil,” Chairman of the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee Semyon Shapiro said when speaking at the ceremony to unveil the slab at the Grieving Mother monument in Volozhin.

The memorial slab was installed to pay tribute to 107 residents of Volozhin who were killed by the Nazis in 1941-1942. The burial place was discovered last autumn during the residential housing construction. Specialists of the 52nd independent specialized search battalion of the Defense Ministry established that the remains belong to the members of the local Jewish community.

"The souls of the dead will find peace on this land because we remember them. Rest in peace!” said Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Belarus Iosif Shagal.

Representatives of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, the Jewish community performed the remembrance ceremonies. The participants of the ceremony laid flowers and observed a minute of silence.

The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Defense Ministry, public organizations, and the diplomatic missions of Israel, Russia, Germany, and Poland.