Cross in commemoration of totalitarian regimes’ victims :: Charter'97 :: News

The cross in commemoration of all perished by the totalitarian regimes of the XX century was erected at the entrance to Vaukavisk when coming from Slonim at the palace of the former Uniat church. Next to this place in the Stalin’s times the peaceful people were shot. The cross was blessed by the Uniat priest from Grodna.

The erection of cross was arranged by the local activists and the public from Grodna, the Svislachsky and Mastousky districts on the initiative of the regional historical scientist Viktar Vaitchuk , the Radio Svaboda informs.

“ The memory is given to us by God , by history and has been legalized by the human life itself. That is why it does not require any legal permission. The right to remember belongs to everybody borne on this land”, one of the activists Uladzimir Khilmanovich told the Radio Svaboda.

Regional historical scientist from Vaukavisk Mikola Bikhhautsau told that the cross was the first message because nobody anywhere in Vaukavisk and its vicinities has ever commemorated the rebels and totalitarian regimes’ victims though there are many places of the kind there.

“In the center of our town at the place of the former military settlement in the last war times first there was a concentration camp of the soviet army prisoners, later there was the ghetto and still later – the concentration camp of the Stalin’s victims. But it is not known to anybody and there is no sign of it “, the regional historical scientist added.