Opinions & Interviews

Kurz: Trostenets Memorial highlights the countries’ commitment to Never Again motto

MINSK, 28 March (BelTA) – The Trostenets Memorial highlights the countries’ commitment to the motto “Never Again”, Federal Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz said as he attended the ceremony to inaugurate the monument Array of Names in the territory of the Trostenets Memorial on 28 March, BelTA has learned.

“We bow before the countless victims from Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, the victims from Belarus. We will never forget this place and its name. We believe that it should serve as a warning in order to emphasize our commitment to the motto “Never Again”, said Sebastian Kurz.

In his words, Maly Trostenets remained for quite a long time a little-known place for Austria. The talking about the place began only many years after the war ended. “It is the place which witnessed countless incomprehensible crimes. Crimes committed against humanity. Crimes, the details of which we can investigate and name today but will never be able to understand,” the federal chancellor said.

“For a very long time the official Austria, and unfortunately I have to admit it, has contributed to our little knowledge about this tragedy. We avoided responsibility. But today we have taken an important step towards remembering the events that took place here, remembering those people, male and female Jews, who were first deprived of their property, then their freedom, and finally, their lives were taken away here,” he stressed.

Sebastian Kurz noted that those people were killed en masse and buried in mass graves. It was an attempt to deprive them of their names. “Although we cannot travel in time and prevent this from happening, we can keep the memory of those people and never forget them today,” said the chancellor.

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