Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill arrived in Vitebsk

September 27, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill arrived in Vitebsk, a BELTA correspondent reports. Hundreds of townspeople greeted him at the entrance to the city. Continuing his primatial visit to Belarus, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is visiting the Vitebsk Diocese. He began his visit by laying flowers at the obelisk in memory of the victims of fascism. The obelisk was erected in 1964 at the site of the former concentration camp "5th Regiment". During the occupation by the Nazi invaders in Vitebsk, 5 large death camps were established. On the territory of the former 5th railway regiment (now Titova Street), a death camp was established in 1941 as a camp for prisoners of war. It was located on both sides of a ravine, where several dilapidated, uninhabitable barracks stood, surrounded by barbed wire. In 1941, up to 40,000 prisoners of war were held here. By 1943, almost all of them had been exterminated. In March-April 1943, the Nazis placed up to 20,000 local residents, mainly women, the elderly, and children, in this camp, and in February-May 1944, almost all the remaining population of the city. In total, more than 80,000 people died in the camp (according to other sources, more than 100,000 people). This death camp was distinguished by the fact that prisoners were not assigned numbers, there were no gas chambers or crematoria. Corpses were thrown into burial pits. Tens of thousands of people were transported from here to other concentration camps and for forced labor. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis carried out a "disposal" of the camp. To hide their atrocities, as well as to spread diseases among the population and the advancing Red Army, thousands of prisoners exhausted by typhus and other infectious diseases were transported to Beshenkovichsky, Chashniksky, and Ushachsky districts of the region. The majority of them died. In the year of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders, 1,237 military burials, monuments, and memorial sites have been put in order and improved in the Vitebsk region. -0-