A fundraiser for the creation of a monument to the victims of fascism will be held in Polotsk on the International Day of Peace

September 20, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Polotsk City Executive Committee and the Polotsk City Council of Deputies supported the initiative of the city branch of the NGO "Belarusian Peace Foundation" to hold the "Peace Watch" event on the International Day of Peace on September 21, during which funds will be collected to perpetuate the memory of the victims of fascism, the Chairman of the Polotsk City Executive Committee Alexander Poznyak told a BELTA correspondent.

All funds collected on this day will be directed to perpetuate the memory of the fallen and the creation of the "Urochishche Peski" memorial complex for the victims of fascism. "Many good deeds are done on the Polotsk land by people together. By collecting fragments of history bit by bit, we preserve the memory for our children and grandchildren," the mayor emphasized.

Residents of the German city of Friedrichshafen, Polotsk's sister city, have joined the fundraising for the creation of the memorial. They intend to raise about 150 thousand euros, Alexander Poznyak added.

According to archival data of the Polotsk Regional Extraordinary Commission for the Accounting of Damage and Investigation of the Crimes of the German-Fascist Occupiers and Their Accomplices, the Peski area is a place of mass extermination of 40 to 150 thousand prisoners of war and civilians. In 1993-1994, excavations were carried out at this site by a specialized search battalion of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus, which confirmed the fact of the burial of over 38 thousand people. However, the exact number of buried has not been confirmed to date.

A design proposal for the memorial has been developed.-0-