New exhibition project about Nazi crimes during WWII presented in Minay Shmyrev Vitebsk Regional Museum

We do not forget what our ancestors had to go through in the most difficult times and we pass this memory to the younger generation. An exhibition on the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War was presented in Vitebsk. Photos, copies of archival documents, excavation materials and a map of Vitebsk Region with the number of civilians killed in Nazi concentration camps - these exhibits were presented in the Regional Museum of Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Shmyrev.

The crimes of Nazis and their collaborators during the war

These photos and copies of archive documents show the horrors and atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the war in the territory of the Vitebsk Region. Even after almost 8 decades after the war, experts are discovering new facts of genocide of the Belarusian people.

Denis Yakovlev, chief curator of the funds of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Hero of the Soviet Union M. F. Shmyrev

“We are going to present documents from the German part, which show how this policy of genocide was carried out, and from the partisans, who recorded these facts in the aftermath of these crimes in order to keep them in history.”

The new exhibition project is important for every Belarusian. It will be noted by the Governor of Vitebsk Region at the presentation of the exhibition. Alexander Subbotin was among the first to familiarize himself with the exposition. The museum of the Hero of the Soviet Union Minay Shmyrev was familiar to him since his childhood and had already been strongly impressed.

Alexander Subbotin, Chairman of Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee:

“When they showed me the documents Great Patriotic War and the things that happened in that period in our country, it made a heavy impression. There is a lump in my throat. We see how many people were tortured, shot, destroyed.”

The prosecutor's office of Vitebsk Region continues to investigate the criminal case on the fact of genocide of the Belarusian people during the war to find out the names of the concrete persons of Nazis and their accomplices, who escaped punishment for cruel tortures and murders of peaceful inhabitants .

Igor Ukrainets, prosecutor of Vitebsk Кegion:

“We have questioned about two thousand citizens in this case - these are living witnesses, eyewitnesses of the atrocities that the Nazis and their accomplices committed on the territory of the region with our population. About 650 inspections were carried out and 136 previously unknown burials of civilians were established. At the same time we established about 200 names of Nazis and their accomplices. These were mostly Germans by nationality or Latvians.”

Prosecutors promise to share the results of the investigation with the curators of the exhibition. The exposition of Nazi crimes in Vitebsk region during the Great Patriotic War is only a part of a large-scale project, which is now being prepared. The exhibition will be supplemented with new information and presented in all districts of the Vitebsk Region.