President of the Republic of Belarus A.Lukashenko Delivers Address to Mark the 65th Anniversary of Annihilation of the Minsk Ghetto
21 October 2008
Dear countrymen,
Distinguished foreign guests,
Sixty-five years ago, in occupied Minsk, the Nazi invaders eliminated the last prisoners of the Minsk ghetto. This sorrowful date reminds us of the terrible ordeals that befell our people during the Great Patriotic War.
In that hard and tragic time Belarus suffered irreplaceable losses. Every third Belarusian was killed on the fronts and in guerrilla squads, was tortured to death in concentration camps and prisons. On the Belarusian land, which had endured numerous ordeals, the Nazis organised a ghetto which prisoners were doomed to inevitable death. The Minsk ghetto was one of the biggest in Europe. Not only residents of our country, but also nationals of Germany, Austria, Poland and other states were being eliminated here.
The entire Belarus took the grief of the Jewish people as its own grief. Risking their lives, Belarusians were saving many Jews, adults and children, from inevitable death. Nearly seven hundred citizens of our republic have been honoured with the lofty title “Righteous among the Nations” in recognition of their nobility and heroism.
The prisoners of the Minsk ghetto, like prisoners of the other death camps, did not bend their heads before the executioners. Behind barbed wire, they were creating underground military groups. Many young people managed to escape from the camp and become members of guerrilla squads, in which they fought courageously and fittingly against the enemy.
The sorrowful anniversary of the annihilation of the Minsk ghetto fills our hearts with pain. In the name of the victims of the Hitlerite genocide, we should do our utmost to make sure that those terrifying events will never happen again. We are full of determination to counteract any manifestations of Nazism and religious intolerance. May the peaceful and beautiful Belarus be our common dear and cosy home.
Alexander Lukashenko
