A memorial sign to the victims of the war will appear in Vitebsk near the "5th Regiment" memorial
The idea to install the memorial sign emerged several years ago. The initiator was the head of the region's parliamentary corps, Vladimir Terentyev. The regional branch of the Belarusian Peace Foundation is providing financial assistance for the project's implementation.
Recently, specialists erected the foundation for the future complex, and the wall section of the memorial sign is currently being created. It will be 2 meters high, and the composition will be cast from polymer. The new object is planned to be installed by the end of the year, weather permitting.
According to the author of the memorial sign, sculptor, and associate professor at the Department of Fine Arts of Vitebsk State University named after P.M. Masherov, Sergey Sotnikov, the composition will feature an open gate with barbed wire. On the left side of the memorial sign, various people will be depicted: a prisoner of war, an elderly Jewish man, a woman with children, an old woman, and others. On the right side, there will be a map of the Vitebsk region with approximately 100 locations of forced detention and extermination of civilians and prisoners of war during the Great Patriotic War. In front of the sign, there will be a space for flowers and wreaths.
The concentration camp of the 313th Guard Division was located on the western outskirts of Vitebsk, where the 5th railway regiment was situated before the war. There were two concentration camps: one for prisoners of war, operating from the beginning of the occupation of Vitebsk, and another for the civilian population. Later, the camp became general. More than 80,000 prisoners of war and civilians died here.
In 1964, an obelisk was erected 150 meters from the burial site of the prisoners near the road. In 2005, a 15-meter cross was placed nearby, and seven years later, an Orthodox chapel appeared here.-0-
