Belarus, Israel to discuss projects to preserve historical memory

VITEBSK, 27 January (BelTA) – On 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the twin cities of Glubokoye and Kiryat Bialik will hold a zoom-based roundtable to discuss projects to preserve the historical memory of the Jewish population of Glubokoye, Lyudmila Karnilovich, the head of the ideology, culture and youth affairs department of the Glubokoye district administration, told BelTA.

On behalf of the Israeli city, the event will be attended by schoolchildren who are engaged in preserving the memory of the Holocaust victims, ghetto prisoner Meir Levitanus, and Mayor of Kiryat Bialyk Eli Dukorsky who will deliver a video message. Deputy Chairperson of the Glubokoye district administration Tatiana Tarasevich, staff of the history and ethnography museum and young people will represent Glubokoye during the roundtable. The representatives of the Belarusian city will tell their counterparts about their efforts to preserve the memory of the Jewish heritage, to install memorial signs and. to maintain the burial sites (five of them in Glubokoye District).

“At the moment we are working on a book about the Glubokoye Ghetto, the catastrophe and heroism of Jews. The purpose of the book is to preserve the memory of thousands of people who were killed only for their ethnicity. It will be published by the Petrus Brovka Belarusian Encyclopedia publishing house. We hope that the book will see the light of day by the 80th anniversary of the beginning of World War II," said Lyudmila Karnilovich.

The ghetto in Glubokoye was set up on 22 October 1941 for Jews not only from Glubokoye but 42 towns and villages, including Sharkovshchina, Postavy, Plissa. In total, more than 10,000 people were tortured and killed in the Glubokoye ghetto. The lists with the names of prisoners was lost during the war. Out of thousands of Jews not more than 500 survived.

Glubokoye is set to install a memorial sign dedicated to the Jewish resistance in the ghetto. According to the idea, it will be dedicated to all the ghettos where prisoners revolted. A sketch of the future project is ready.

Glubokoye and Kiryat Bialik are twin cities. In 2014, the cities signed an agreement on social and cultural cooperation. In 2020, Glubokoye unveiled a memorial sign on the site of the synagogue complex of the Jewish community. The authorities, public organizations, and local historians of Glubokoye continuously study the history of the local Jewish community, their contribution to the social and economic development of the city.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established by the United Nations in 2005 and is marked on 27 January. On this day in 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp and death camp of World War II, where more than 1.1 million people died. According to various estimates, more than 800,000, or about 90% of the Jewish population living in Belarus before the war, died during the occupation. About 800 Belarusians have been awarded the Righteous of the World title.