Capsule with message

President of Belarus announces that it’s our sacred and moral duty to the victims of the Nazis, and to future generations, to never forgive those who committed war crimes, speaking at ceremony to lay time capsule in foundations of Trostenets Memorial Complex, near Minsk

The memorial complex is to serve as a reminder to future generations that tragic events should be never repeated. It is a symbol of pain and grief for various nationalities and religions, acting as a warning against reviving mad ideas of racial superiority. Mr. Lukashenko urged, “The memorial should become a site with pan-European value, showing the inhumanity of Nazi policy. It is a tribute to those generations who experienced the burdens and ordeals of the 20th century, and will become a place of worship for those who appreciate humanism and desire a peaceful future.”

Trostenets concentration camp was the largest within the Soviet Union, standing alongside Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. Here, Nazi Fascists destroyed more than 200,000 people — of various religions and nationalities: Slavs, Jews, Gypsies and many others. Mr. Lukashenko explained, “In 1944, the armies liberating Belarus from the Fascist aggressors found ashes from still cooling furnaces and were astonished by the brutal crimes committed over several years, here in Trostenets. The site covered just over a hundred hectares, and was a true Nazi factory of death. Behind barbed wire, our partisans and undergrounders, prisoners of war and civilians were tortured. Tens of thousands of Jews were herded here from Minsk Ghetto and from Western-European countries. Belarus, which lost a third of its citizens in those war years, will never forget those terrible pages of history.”