Brno erected a memorial to the tortured Jews in Minsk

Brno/Minsk - Brno has had a memorial built in Minsk for 170,000 crowns, which commemorates the thousands of Brno Jews who were murdered during the Second World War in what is now the capital of Belarus. The memorial complex is located on the site of the former Jewish cemetery at 25 Suchaja Street, Zuzana Taušová from the Brno City Hall told reporters today. According to her, Brno has thus joined other cities that remember their murdered citizens at the Minsk memorial site.

Brno Jews perished after being deported to the ghetto in Minsk. "Other cities had memorials to the suffering of their Jews in Minsk, but Brno was still missing one. When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jewish Community of Brno approached the city leadership almost simultaneously about this, we did not hesitate for a moment within the Year of Reconciliation and, of course, supported the creation of the memorial stele," said Deputy Mayor Matěj Hollan (Žít Brno), who attended the unveiling of the memorial in Minsk on Monday.

"Although it is stated 'Brno Jews,' they are Brno citizens who were unfortunate enough to be of a faith that Nazi Germany did not like. Of the first thousand residents of Brno transported, only 13 survived. This was followed by the deportation of another 6,000 Jews from the ghetto in Terezín, of whom six survived," said Hollan.

The unveiling of the memorial was also attended by Pavel Fried, Vice-Chairman of the Jewish Community of Brno, who survived the Holocaust. "I have unveiled many memorials that remember the fates of their loved ones. However, this memorial is different because it was initiated by people who do not mourn their loved ones, but nevertheless, their fate is not indifferent to them, and they consider it their moral duty to remind us of it," stated Fried. According to him, children who wanted to play, young boys and girls who wanted to marry and start families, as well as grandmothers and grandfathers who wanted to spend the autumn of their lives with grandchildren in their laps, died in Minsk.

The text on the memorial is in three languages: Czech, German, and Belarusian. It is dedicated to the memory of nearly 7,000 Jewish men, women, and children from Brno and Terezín who perished in the Minsk ghetto in 1941 and 1942.