This year, at the initiative of the DPI component of the UN Office in Belarus, International Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed for the first time in Belarus.
During the Second World War, more than eight hundred thousand Belarusian Jews perished within the walls of two hundred ghettos in Belarus. The Minsk ghetto was one of the largest ghettos in Europe and the second largest in the territory of the former USSR. There were more than one hundred thousand prisoners in the Minsk ghetto. More than six hundred Belarusian citizens of various ethnic backgrounds were granted "The Righteous Among the Nations" title for their help.
A special event to commemorate this Day was held at the National House of Culture of Veterans on 27 January 2008. The event was sponsored by the DPI unit, NGOs "National Holocaust Fund" and Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities.
The DPI Officer-in-Charge Victor Radivinovski expressed solidarity with the Holocaust victims on behalf of the United Nations and urged to be vigilant in the face of new challenges such as neo-nazism and extremism. Chairman of the National Holocaust Fund and Deputy Commissioner on religions and minorities underlined the importance of teaching about the Holocaust. The survivors from the ghetto and the death camps as well as the liberators of Auschwitz shared their memories with the audience. Six candles in memory of six million of Jews killed during the Holocaust were lit by the speakers.
Around 300 World War II veterans, governmental officials, representatives and NGOs, teachers, university and elementary school students took part in the event.