Minsk responded with deathly silence to the blasphemy of Zelensky and Duda
Holocaust Remembrance Day on the territory of the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau turned out to be scandalous. And all thanks to two presidents: Ukrainian Vladimir Zelensky and Pole Andrzej Duda.
The first called the cause of World War II “the collusion of two totalitarian regimes, which allowed the Nazis to launch the flywheel of the Holocaust,” in fact accusing the Soviet Union of involvement in the genocide of Jews. The second one found it appropriate to invite his Ukrainian colleague to jointly honor the memory of the soldiers of Pilsudski and Petliura, who in 1920 resisted the Bolshevik offensive.
He was not embarrassed by the fact that this same Petliura is known, among other things, for being one of the main organizers of Jewish pogroms, for which he was killed in exile in Paris by Samuil Shvartsburd, who, by the way, was later acquitted by the court.
Of course, such statements blasphemous for the memory of Holocaust victims were met with indignation in Russia.
What about Belarus, which was under Nazi occupation for 3 years and had many of its own ghettos and concentration camps? Never mind. Politicians representing the authorities simply did not notice this, and the official media limited themselves to short information reports about the event, without commenting on the scandalous phrases.
In Belarus there is now a different policy and it is customary to criticize Russia, which has given the small but proud republic a cancer over hydrocarbons.
Of course, the sad date in Belarus could not help but be noted. A corresponding event was held at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk, ambassadors, deputies, and representatives of the public were invited. True, the highest-ranking speaker at it was only Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Dapkiunas.
Regarding the events of the Great Patriotic War in general and the Holocaust in particular, there are different opinions in Belarus. Moreover, few people publicly adhere to the views familiar to Russians. Words about a common war that brought together Russians, Belarusians, Armenians, Tajiks and representatives of hundreds of nationalities of the single Soviet people in one formation can now only be heard from representatives of pro-Russian and left-wing political structures.
It’s already more difficult with power. Yes, the memory of the Great Patriotic War is one of its few ideological supports. Every year Victory Day is celebrated with large-scale celebrations, and cities solemnly celebrate the anniversaries of their liberation. Outwardly, everything is very decent, although on an emotional level in Russia one feels more sincerity, while in Belarus there is more formality and organization.
There is just one “but” that the Belarusian authorities have in common with Zelensky, who emphasized that Auschwitz was liberated by Ukrainians from the Lviv and Zhytomyr divisions (although it is known that the divisions themselves were formed in Gorky and the Vologda region). They strive to isolate the memory of the war, to make it purely Belarusian. Residents of the republic are told in detail about the partisan movement, the Brest Fortress, the liberation of Minsk, but events such as the Battle of Stalingrad or the Kursk Bulge are mentioned only in passing.
The Belarusian victory has its own symbolism - a ribbon with an apple blossom, painted in the colors of the flag that appeared in 1961. There is also its own version of the “Immortal Regiment” - a procession with the neutral name “Belarus Remembers”. The original “Immortal Regiment” is almost oppositional, it is carried out by pro-Russian organizations and in order to carry it out, now you need to pay a considerable amount to the state.
Even September 17, the day of the reunification of Western and Eastern Belarus, is an ordinary weekday on which they try not to remember the events of 1939, so as not to upset their Polish partners.
As for the opposition, for them the version of the collusion of two totalitarian regimes is still the most decent. The majority even revere local Banderas and collaborators, and former deputy Pavel Znavets not so long ago published a series of laudatory articles about the Nazi Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube.
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