Belsky on International Day of Liberation of Concentration Camp Prisoners: terrible history must not be repeated

On the International Day of Liberation of Prisoners of Nazi Concentration Camps, members of the Council of the Republic and employees of the secretariat laid flowers at the Masyukovshchina memorial complex: a monument to the victims – prisoners of war and civilians – who died during the Great Patriotic War in one of the largest concentration camps in the occupied territory of the former USSR

“Every year on this day we lay flowers in memory of the victims who were killed in this place,” Valery Belsky, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic, told reporters. “More than 80,000 Soviet prisoners of war and civilians found their last rest here. Today is a symbol of invincibility and fortitude.”

The memorable date is dedicated to the day of the uprising in Buchenwald, when – despite all the horrors that the people experienced – they, exhausted and tormented, found the strength to overthrow the leadership of the camp and take it under control. As a result, many lives have been saved.

“We also remember earlier events, when the prisoners of the Sobibor extermination camp raised an uprising and many of them were able to free themselves,” the Deputy Chairman added. “Then for a long time they carried the truth about the ‘Garden of Eden’, which some European politicians continue to call the place where they live. European officials still consider other countries to be ‘jungles’ that need to be fought. Therefore, the Nazis inhumanly destroyed our ancestors like weeds. And their actions must not be forgotten in order to prevent the repetition of that terrible history. After all, those sprouts of revanchism that are now appearing on European land are being encouraged by the leadership of these countries. We know that today, in the ideology and practice of certain countries, torchlight processions and the use of Nazi symbols oriented towards the superiority of the people and ethnic group have become acceptable.”

For those who do not know or do not remember what such actions can lead to, Valery Belsky advised not to forget the road to such memorial complexes.