On the presentation of the collection of documents and materials «The Holocaust in Belarus: Tragedy and Memory»
On February 16, the presentation of the collection of documents and materials «The Holocaust in Belarus: Tragedy and Memory» took place at the National Library of Belarus. This publication is the result of the joint work of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB), the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents (BGAKFFD) and a number of regional and zonal archival institutions of our republic. The publication was prepared with the financial support of the Embassy of the State of Israel in the Republic of Belarus.
The presentation was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps, scientists, historians, archivists and local historians.
In his welcoming speech, Chargé d’Affaires of the State of Israel in the Republic of Belarus, Mr. Zvi Mirkin, noted the importance of this publication for preserving the objective historical memory of the tragedy of the Jews in Belarus.
Director of the Department for Archives and Paperwork of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus O.L. Voinov spoke about the great and important work carried out by the archival institutions of the republic to introduce into scientific circulation new archival materials about the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the Jewish population of Belarus.
Member of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, Doctor of History, Professor I.A. Marzalyuk in his speech called the Belarusians the most anti-Nazi nation and spoke about how we preserve the objective Memory of those terrible events. The deputy added: «We will be grateful to those who created this wonderful collection. A collection for our common will, about our common suffering, about the terrible tragedy that we all experienced during the years of that occupation.
The head of the investigation group for the investigation of the criminal case on genocide is the head of the department of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus V.V. Tolkachev. In his report, Tolkachev shared his opinion on the importance of archival documents for an objective investigation of the criminal case on the genocide of the population of Belarus during the war years, and also expressed confidence that the presented publication would be useful in the work of the prosecutor’s office.
Deputy Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Candidate of History, Associate Professor P.A. Trubchik spoke about the close ties between Belarusian scientists and archivists in the field of research, including various aspects of the history of the Great Patriotic War.
Head of the NARB Publications Department, Ph.D. S.V. Kulinok spoke about how the collection of documents was prepared, about its structure and informative potential.
In conclusion, the director of the NARB A.K. Demyanuk thanked all those present for participating in the presentation and donated one copy of the publication to the National Library. The director of the NARB also announced that in the very near future the electronic version of the collection would be made publicly available on the archive’s website.
A video from the BGAKFFD funds gave a special emotionality to this tragic topic. The story is told on behalf of the girl Genya, who was left an orphan – her whole family died in the ghetto.
All those present at the presentation could familiarize themselves with the banner exhibition «Without a statute of limitations. Belarus» about the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population of our republic; an exhibition of original documents on the history of the Holocaust and publications on this topic.
The musical accompaniment of the event was provided by the string quartet of the Honored Collective of the Republic of Belarus «Presidential Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus».
