April 11 — International Day of Liberation of Prisoners of Fascist Concentration Camps

By decision of the United Nations, April 11 is observed worldwide as the International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Fascist Concentration Camps.

It was on this day in 1945, during the Second World War, that prisoners at Buchenwald, led by an international political center, launched an armed uprising, successfully seizing control of the camp and holding it until the arrival of Allied forces.

During the Nazi occupation, nearly 400,000 residents of Belarus were deported to Germany for forced labor.

On the territory of Belarus, the Nazis established more than 260 concentration camps for Soviet prisoners of war, as well as 350 camps, prisons, and other sites for the forced detention of civilians.

In March 1944, approximately 50,000 elderly people, children, women, persons with disabilities, and individuals suffering from typhus were forcibly gathered into death camps established by the Nazis near the settlements of Ozarichi, Podosinnik, and Dert.

During the Second World War, the Nazis imprisoned approximately 18 million people from across Europe in the Buchenwald concentration camp, of whom 11 million perished.

Today, at 14:00, the Miory Central District Library will host a commemorative hour titled “Memory That Cannot Be Forgotten” in observance of the International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Fascist Concentration Camps.