Education official reports on 500 new genocide exhibitions at schools

January 26, Pozirk. Over the past year, Belarusian education establishments set up more than 500 exhibitions to raise awareness of genocide against the Belarusian people during World War II, Alena Anufrovič of the National Center for Ecology and Local History has told journalists. 

In all, 3,000 such exhibitions have been set up at 1,500 school museums across Belarus, she added.

The education ministry directed schools in 2022 to put up genocide stands at museums. Later that year, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that 2,500 of 2,865 schools had exhibitions to underscore the genocidal dimensions of massacres committed by the Germans in Belarus.

Officials broached the subject after the 2020 postelection protests, amending the school curriculum in 2022. Teachers started citing materials provided by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Prosecutor General Andrej Švied personally contributed content by editing the school textbook on genocide intended to thrust the topic of World War II into the spotlight.

Two years ago, Alaksandar Łukašenka signed a law to criminalize genocide denial. On January 23, prosecutors brought a genocide denial charge against Siarhiej Dubaviec, a foreign-based RFE/RL Belarus Service journalist.

Meanwhile, officials and propaganda officers often try to pin genocide on opponents by calling them “fascists.” At a conference last month, Švied described Belarus’ historic white-red-white flag, which is honored by opponents, as a “symbol of Nazism and genocide.”