Commemorative events are held throughout Pridnestrovie, during which the victims of anti-Semitism, which distinguished Nazi ideology, are remembered. Millions of Jews who died all over Europe in the 30s and 40s of the last century – these are the consequences of the fascist policy of that time. The genocide of the Jewish people did not bypass the Pridnestrovian land. About forty thousand representatives of this nationality died here. Executions were also carried out on the territory of Bendery. Several monuments to the victims of the Holocaust have been built in the city. A memorial complex was built on the territory of the Jewish cemetery on the initiative and with the support of the PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky last year. There was a meeting-requiem today. The participants of the commemorative event were welcomed by the PMR President.
Addressing the people of Bendery and guests of the city gathered at the memorial, including representatives of foreign states, Vadim Krasnoselsky spoke about the tragic events of the last century, the victims of genocide, and the victory over Nazism.
“Part of Poland and the Auschwitz concentration camp were liberated on January 27, 1945 as a result of the successful impetuous Vistula-Oder offensive operation. The Soviet soldiers who liberated the prisoners were presented with a terrible picture – a factory of death, where the killing of people was put on an industrial flow with technology, engineering, if you call it a modern word, then with "creativity". Creativity of death. I suppose, the Soviet soldiers discovered a new war for themselves then. Not just a war with the enemy. There have been many wars in history. But it was a new war aimed at the total destruction of people on a national basis. They created entire factories for killing. There are a million versions on the Internet, arguments about who fought, who lost, who won. There was fascist Germany, there were axis states – all the states of present-day Europe in fact, which fascist Germany turned into killing grounds. But ideology, Nazi ideology, fascist ideology dominated everyone. If we talk about the losers in this war, I can safely say that it was not the states that lost. Germany only won this war – it was liberated from Nazism and fascism, from this ideology, which turned the German people into beasts. There were a lot of educated people there. If you look at the level of education of the SS troops, you will see that there were many doctors of sciences, graduate students, scientists, people who had a certain status. But they were beasts, they destroyed people, because they all fell ill with the virus of nationalism and fascism. I am personally convinced that ideology has lost in this war. Germany is exempt from this plague, as are many of the Axis powers that the Soviet Union and its allies fought against.
Terrible figures: six million Jews killed, twenty, thirty, forty million Soviet people – no one really knows until now the number of dead. According to various sources, the numbers fluctuate in the millions, you know? That’s tragedy. Unborn children, destruction – all this was brought to our land by Nazism and fascism, namely ideology.
Pridnestrovie was involved into these processes, unfortunately. About forty thousand people of Jewish nationality were killed on the Pridnestrovian land, not to mention other victims. I want to draw attention to the fact that it was on the Pridnestrovian land that the destruction of the people took place under the guise of the so-called Transnistria. I would like to ask everyone present to pay special attention to this. "Transnistria" is an occupational term used by the German and Romanian occupiers in relation to the territory of Pridnestrovie. The term "Transnistria" is equated with the Holocaust, genocide in Israel, in the museum of memory of the victims of the Holocaust. It is very insulting for me when someone allows himself to call Pridnestrovie Transnistria. Feel free to express your opinion, stop these statements. We are not Transnistria. This is insulting to us. Transnistria is the Holocaust, it is genocide.
I loved history when I was in school and I had no doubt that there would never be anything like the Holocaust. Probably, all those present here did not doubt it for a second. But it is. We will not stand aside, we must always have our say. Otherwise, we run the risk of repeating what happened, when educated people in civilized countries turn into beasts. This is unacceptable,” stressed the PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky.
At the end of the rally dedicated to the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, the participants of the event laid flowers at 14 marble slabs with the names of Bendery residents who were shot by the German-Romanian invaders, as well as those who fell on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, at the menorah depicted in the center of the memorial composition, at the panorama – frozen in the stone of the history of the tragic events that took place in Bendery during the Second World War, as well as to the sign installed in 2019, reminiscent of the executed children from Jewish families.
Flowers – a symbol of unfading memory – revived today one of the walls of the Bendery fortress. Four execution pits were discovered near the main fortress gates along Panin Street at the end of 1944. A commemorative plate, telling about the execution of 58 people including children was built last year at the site of the tragic events dated 1941. The names of 11 dead are known for certain.
