This is a joint project with the Victory Museum in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill. The exhibition includes reportage photographs by war correspondents, posters, fragments of weapons, front-line drawings, and works by artists from the post-war period. Documentary footage, real stories of people tortured in ghettos, concentration camps, or deported to Germany for forced labor, testify to the crimes of the Nazis. A total of over 50 exhibits are presented, half of which are from the collections of the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill.
Novopolotsk residents supplemented the exhibition with exhibits from local history – these are materials about the Stalag No. 354 concentration camp, which was located in Borovukha at that time, partisan warfare in the Polotsk region, and personal belongings and awards of local war veterans.
- The exhibition does not just reflect the events in Belarus during the war. Many exhibits concern the Polotsk region specifically. Everyone can see what happened here in those terrible years," noted Vladimir Terentyev, Chairman of the Regional Council of Deputies. - This must be remembered. We must cherish peace, which is especially relevant today. The generation of war veterans and participants is passing away, but there are still children of war who went through the horrors of concentration camps, and their memories are invaluable.
The project, implemented with the support of the Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Peace Foundation, is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of Khatyn's burning, the anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad, and the Year of Peace and Creation in Belarus. As emphasized by Dmitry Demidov, Chairman of the Novopolotsk City Executive Committee, preserving historical memory is a guarantee that these events will not be repeated.
The exhibition is open until February 25.
"Vitebskiye Vesti"
