A mourning rally has been held near the monument to the Victims of Fascism on the International Day for the Liberation of Prisoners of the Nazi Concentration Camp. First Deputy Mayor Mykhaylo Kohut took part in the event.
‘War is always an ordeal, loss of life and pain. Every Mariupol family was affected by that terrible war. Our duty is to remind the younger generation of what they have experienced so that such a tragedy will never happen again,’ Mykhaylo Kohut noted.
The meeting was attended by the head of Mariupol City Union of Victims of Nazi Persecution Viktor Dekaliuk. When he was six years old, together with his mother, Victor was sent to a German concentration camp. He survived the ordeal, but he escaped death.
‘About 60 000 Mariupol residents were taken to Germany. Most of those who ended up in the concentration camps did not survive. I can say I was lucky. I was ransomed to a labor camp. So I stayed alive,’ Viktor Dekaliuk recalls.
The chairman of Mariupol district council, Stepan Makhsma, emphasized who does not know the past, does not know the future: ‘We must tell the younger generation what happened in those years. Thousands of Mariupol residents were expelled to Germany. Many did not live to see these days. But we honor their memory.’
Natalia Bukreieva, head of the Mariupol regional administration, joined his words. She added that it is important to take care of the veterans who survived the horrors of those times.
At the end of the meeting, everybody, who was present, laid flowers at the memorial.
