Belarus’ Prosecutor General: damage caused to Belarusian people by Nazi criminals exceeds $2.3tr

An international scientific and practical conference is being held in Minsk, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

“The results of the investigation into the criminal case of the genocide of the Belarusian people provide indisputable evidence that Belarus is one of the few – and perhaps the only country in the world – that was subjected to all known forms of genocide during the Great Patriotic War,” underlined Prosecutor General Andrei Shved. “Today, together with Russia and other allied states, we are, in fact, an outpost in the fight against neo-fascism and neo-Nazism of the 21st century. Active attempts are being made to rewrite history and distort it. Some states today have taken Nazi ideology as the basis of their policies. It is very important for us to prevent Nazism and fascism from raising their heads in the 21st century. International events of this kind are intended to once again draw public attention to this problem. We must do everything possible, enabling our youngsters to know the true face of fascism, Nazism and make every effort to prevent this phenomenon – the worst in the history of mankind – from repeating itself in the future.”

Belarus’ Prosecutor General also noted that the scale of the tragedy that unfolded on the territory of Belarus during the war years was much greater than indicated during the Soviet period, “According to the evidence we received, at least 3 million civilians and prisoners of war were exterminated, and at least 380,000 people were driven into slavery. At least 11,700 settlements were burned completely or partially. According to updated data, at least 187 punitive operations were carried out on the BSSR territory. There were at least 560 concentration camps. The history of mankind has not known such a scale of extermination of the population over such a long period of time. Nevertheless, these terrible figures are not final today. In fact, the entire country was turned into a conveyor of death, into a huge cemetery.”

At the initiative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, a recalculation of the damage caused to our country by Nazi criminals was carried out: it exceeds $2.3tr, or 43,500 tonnes of gold. Moreover, this amount does not contain comprehensive data on damage caused by the export of cultural property.