Mahiliou authorities ban construction of monument to Holocaust victims

The Jewish community of Mahiliou has for the fourth time addressed the city authorities with a request to construct a monument in the place of mass extermination of Holocaust victims.

As the representatives of the community said, a corresponding letter had been sent to the toponymic commission of Mahiliou city executive committee on 30 June. It is noted there that October 2008 is the 65th anniversary of Minsk Ghetto extermination, BelaPAN writes. It was one of the largest ghettos in Europe.

‘This day has become the common day of memory of Holocaust victims in Belarus. It was a starting point for organizing memorial events which are to take place not only in Minsk, but all over the world. Among basic of them are construction of monuments, memorial signs in the places of mass execution of Holocaust victims in cities and districts of Belarus, including the construction of a memorial sign in the place of a former Jewish ghetto in Mahiliou,’ the letter reads.

As said by the authors of the letter, such a memorial sign would ‘contribute to conservation of historic legacy of the city and upbringing of the young generation in the spirit of internationalism and patriotism’.

Mahiliou ghetto was created in September 1941. It existed for not long: by the end of October 1941 almost all Jewish community of Mahiliou and neighborhood was executed. After that less than a thousand of Jews, skilled workers, was left in the region. They lived in a specially established labor camp situated at the territory of Dimitrov plant (Strommashyna plant at present). Later almost all of them were slaughtered.