Chairperson of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova and Chairman of the House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko laid a wreath at the Masyukovshchina memorial complex as part of the nationwide campaign “Belarus Remembers. We Remember Everyone” in Minsk on 8 May, BelTA as learned.

“This is a sacred day. On this day we remember the people who defended the freedom and independence of our country many years ago. Those who died, those who survived the war, and who restored the country from the ruins. Belarus was almost completely wiped out. But our people held out, they survived,” Natalya Kochanova said. “Our main duty is to preserve this memory, the truth about the war and pass it on to future generations. This is sacred. It is our duty,” she added.

The speaker noted that the war when people, civilians are killed is the worst thing that can happen. “Therefore, we must do everything to keep peace, to preserve our country,” Natalya Kochanova noted.

Chairman of the House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko said that the war had also affected his family. “Three men in my father's family went to war. It was my father, who was in the active army at the time. He was in Germany when the war ended. It was my grandfather, who died in Belgorod Oblast and was buried there. My father's brother died in Lithuania and was buried there in a mass grave. Besides, my father-in-law was a partisan. Unfortunately, they are no longer alive. Therefore, for our family it is a sacred day, a very special day,” he stressed.

Flowers at the Masyukovshchina memorial complex were also laid by members of the Council of the Republic and the House of Representatives.

The Masyukovshchina memorial complex is a tribute to prisoners of war and civilians killed in Stalag-352, one of the biggest death camps in the Nazi-occupied territory of the Soviet Union, during the Great Patriotic War. The prisoners were subject to brutal torture and inhumane treatment. People were kept in barracks, barns and stalls. The death camp was overcrowded, therefore, especially in the autumn of 1941 and the winter of 1941-1942, many prisoners had to live in the open where they died of exposure, starvation and diseases. Over 80,000 captive soldiers and officers as well as civilians driven from Minsk and surrounding villages were killed in Stalag-352 from July 1941 to 3 July 1944. From December 1943 to June 1944, the Nazis also kept here Italian soldiers and officers who fought on the side of the Soviet Union.

The memorial is located in a small pine park. A set of steps leads to the granite monument and the Eternal Flame is lit in memory of the victims. The territory of the memorial also includes mass graves marked by black marble slabs. A white rotunda displaying the Book of Memory stands in the middle of the park. The book includes around 10,000 names of former prisoners of Stalag-352. However, names of over 70,000 victims of the concentration camp are still unknown.