{"id":65792,"date":"2024-02-08T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T12:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=articles&p=65792"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"expert-slams-genocide-textbooks-as-hostile-to-belarusian-national-symbols","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/65792\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert slams genocide textbooks as hostile to Belarusian national symbols"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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February 8, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> School textbooks on genocide against Belarusians during World War II discredit national symbols and may incite hatred, said Kaciaryna Dejka\u0142a of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new school textbooks designed by the education ministry and the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office identify participants in 2020 postelection protest with the Nazis, she noted during the presentation of a report on major trends in Belarusian politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Genocide of the Belarusian People During the Great Patriotic War<\/em> textbook for five-graders accuses the protesters of “using Nazi methods,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indoctrination trends in education also manifest themselves in the museums of Belarusian statehood set up almost in every school, a common approach to teaching history with Russia and the glorification of Russian mercenaries and propaganda workers, Dejka\u0142a stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian funding might be behind the emergence of the “genocide against the population of Belarus and Russia” narrative along with the “genocide against the Belarusian people,” the expert noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities seek to stigmatize dissenters through stigmatization of European values and enhance “anti-Westernism through denigration of national culture,” she stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a human rights perspective, children are a “particularly vulnerable group,” exposed to state-sponsored influence and narratives at schools, Dejka\u0142a added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the 2020 postelection protests, authorities stepped up brainwashing in Belarusian schools. Many teachers were politically persecuted, and the “unreliable” ones were purged from the education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutor General Andrej \u0160vied personally contributed content by editing the genocide textbook, intended to thrust the topic of World War II into the spotlight by highlighting the genocidal dimensions of massacres committed by the Germans in 1941-43.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2022, \u0141uka\u0161enka signed a law that criminalized genocide denial. \u201cThe implementation of the law will contribute to preventing the distortion of the Great Patriotic War\u2019s outcomes, as well as uniting Belarusian society,\u201d his press office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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