There are feelings that time cannot silence. There are sounds that pierce through the silence of decades. Every 30 seconds, the sound of a bell rings out through the forest in the Logoysk District. It is Khatyn speaking to us.
On March 22, 1943, time stopped here. In one terrible afternoon, 149 lives were reduced to ashes. There is no familiar village noise here. Only concrete obelisk chimneys where homes once stood, and open gates through which no one will ever enter again.
On March 22, the 83rd anniversary of the tragedy, the Centre’s employees, as part of a delegation from the Ministry of Natural Resources, took part in the commemorative events at the Khatyn Memorial Complex.
The joint procession, flowers laid at the Eternal Flame, and a minute of silence — all of this is part of the memory that must be preserved. It is a memory of the people whose lives were cut short in the flames. And of our shared responsibility to preserve peace. We remember. Every one of them.
