June 8, President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) Julius Meinl took part in the ceremony of laying the memorial capsule at the site of the former concentration camp Trostenets near Minsk.

During the Nazi occupation Trostenets was the largest concentration camp in Belarus. The number of its victims is the fourth largest after Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka. Historians estimate, that more than 200,000 people, among them 22,000 Jews from Germany and Austria were killed in Trostenets. A memorial complex will be created here; its construction will start this year.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and the head of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Ronald Lauder made speeches at the groundbreaking ceremony of the memorial. War veterans, representatives of the Belarusian government, hundreds of guests from Belarus, Austria and Germany, activists of Jewish organizations attended the memorial celebration.

The text placed in the memorial capsule states that the memorial should serve as a reminder to future generations of the tragic events that will never happened again. The memorial should serve as a warning against the revival of the insane ideas of superiority of some nations over others.

Alexander Lukashenko said in his speech: "Memorial should be a subject of common European values, revealing the essence of antihuman Nazi policy against the civilian population in Europe. It will be a tribute to those generations that hit on all the hardships and trials of the twentieth century, a place of worship of all people who cherish the values of humanism and peaceful future."

Ronald Lauder said that Europe still occur tragic events surrounding the murder of people on the grounds of extremism, which is gaining strength. "The main lesson that we all need to learn today is that we must uncompromisingly stand against all forms of racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and intolerance," the WJC President said.

EAJC President Julius Meinl said in his statement to the media: “It is often difficult to comprehend the scale of the massacres that took place in camps like this across the continent. To understand the numbers. To make sense of the scale. But the victims are not numbers, they are our family.

To me this place carries a personal significance. My great aunt Wilhelmine Gerngross was deported from Vienna on May 27th 1942 and murdered 5 days later, right here where we stand today. She was 65. She was married. She had a son.

She was one of the six million and like every other name, every other story, every other person, we must not forget her…

…The past month has once again shown that we must remain vigilant. The tragic shooting at the Jewish museum in Brussels, the victory of some extreme right wing elements in European elections and another anti-Semitic attack in France should set the alarm bells ringing for us all. Coming here, to a place such as this, focuses the mind on where dangerous rhetoric and racist attacks can lead. This place is the where the path of hate leads, this is where it ends.”

During his visit to Belarus EAJC President met with the President of the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Organizations and Communities (SBEOOO) Boris Gersten and CEO Victoria Brumina. The meeting discussed the possibility of holding the session of the EAJC General Council in the autumn 2014 in Minsk.