Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 13 March (BelTA) - Trostenets is an all-European site for the commemoration of the Nazis’ victims, Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, said at the the Belarusian-German mobile exhibition about the Trostenets death camp that opened at the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War on 13 March, BelTA has learned.

Michael Roth stressed that the event is a tribute to the memory of the Nazism victims as Trostenets was the biggest death camp in Europe where many Belarusian, Austrian, Czech Jews, and Soviet army prisoners were killed.

Three years ago Belarusian and German historians teamed up to create an exhibition about the Holocaust victims in Trostenets where, according to some data, from 60,000 to more than 200,000 people were killed. “The exhibition depicts the fates of the people whose lives ended in Trostenets. It is impossible to tell the story of each one, but it is important to comprehend the scale of the tragedy so that it is never to repeat,” the Minister of State said.

According to Michael Roth, Germany recognizes its historical responsibility for what happened. “We will turn guilty again if we deny the guilt of those who were involved with the crime,” he stressed.

“Our duty is to perpetuate the memory of the Nazis’ victims. The road to reconciliation is difficult, but it helps build up confidence in the future,” the minister said. He also noted that few people in Germany know about Trostenets, and the exhibition will help change this trend.

The mobile exhibition Trostenets Death Camp features archive documents, personal testimonies and recollections of the prisoners from one of Europe’s largest death camps established by the Nazi in Belarus. Along with historical facts visitors are invited to take a look at how memories about the death camp and the Nazi terror policy in Belarus and European countries evolved. A Belarusian-German group has worked to create the exposition since autumn 2014.

The project has been organized by the International Educational Center (Dortmund), the Johannes Rau International Educational center in Minsk, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Foundation (Berlin). Financial support has been provided by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation (EVZ), and the German War Graves Commission.