The State Archive of Vitebsk Region took part in a meeting held as part of the information and educational campaign «On the Roads of Courage and Fortitude»
On 29 June 2022, the employees of the State Archives of Vitebsk Region took part in a meeting held in the framework of the information and educational action «On the Roads of Courage and Fortitude», which covered 27 cities and towns awarded with a pennant “For Courage and Fortitude during the Great Patriotic War”. The organizer of the meeting is the Republican State-Public Association «Belarusian Society «Knowledge».
The speakers told the participants of the meeting about the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), and announced that the Republic of Belarus introduced criminal punishment for public denial of genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War, for example, through mass media or on the Internet.
The Law «On the Genocide of the Belarusian People» of January 5, 2022 No 146-З was adopted to preserve the memory of the millions of Soviet citizens, who became victims in the years of the Great Patriotic War and the postwar period, in accordance with the Constitution of Belarus, as well as on the basis of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948, Convention on Non-Applicability of the Statute of Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity of November 26, 1968. It is aimed at ensuring the legislative protection of the fundamental values of the Belarusian people, the establishment of effective barriers to attempts to falsify the events and outcome of the Second World War, and the provision of a fair assessment of the atrocities committed by Nazi criminals, their accomplices and nationalist formations during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period.
The law is of great constitutional, legal and political value because it will serve as a basis for raising the issue of recognition of the genocide of the Belarusian people at the international level.
The legislative recognition and condemnation of the fact of genocide of the Belarusian people will fix in the historical memory of the people a fair assessment of the atrocities of the Nazis and their accomplices on the Belarusian soil, will become a tribute to the memory of the millions of the Nazi victims.
The adoption of the Law is conditioned by the necessity to preserve the historical memory, to counteract the falsification of events and results of World War II, and to strengthen the national security.
