site.btaFuture Generations Must Know About Times When Human Dignity Was Violated, Justice Minister Georgiev Says in Belene

Future generations must know that there were periods when human rights and dignity were worthless, Minister of Justice Georgi Georgiev Saturday told an annual memorial service for the victims of the totalitarian communist regime at the Belene concentration camp, Northern Bulgaria.

This must never happen again, and the fact that it happened in Bulgaria is little known to young people.  

"There is hardly a more difficult occasion for me to speak. Today I stand before you not only as Minister of Justice, but as Georgi, whose grandfather had a brother who, at the age of 17, was imprisoned in Belene for three years without trial or sentence," Minister Georgiev said at the beginning of his address.

He said that when he receives reports every morning about what is happening in prisons, he shudders when he sees the word "Belene." He is flooded with childhood memories of his family's stories about what happened during those three years and after them, and what they missed out on.

"Evil reigned here for four decades. But today we are here with the camp inmates, their loved ones, and the people who preserve historical memory to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. To honour the memory of the victims, but also to realize that they are not victims, because victimhood requires passivity, and they, you, are people who made a conscious choice, defended your rights and paid an inhuman price for it," the minister added.

Despite a seven-year delay, a few weeks ago the Ministry of Justice took the necessary steps to move forward with the Ministry of Culture on the procedure to grant the former Belene concentration camp the necessary status as a place of historical memory. Discussions are also underway with the Ministry of Environment and Water, Minister Georgiev noted.

He has instructed the director of the Belene prison to take the necessary steps to prepare a plan so that the site can be seen by many people and become a showcase of the terror that will never be forgotten.

The Minister of Justice also recalled the initiative to place memorial plaques in front of every Bulgarian prison where political prisoners were held. There will be information about what happened there and the names of notable Bulgarians. Georgiev added that his ministry supports the idea of making this space easily accessible and lively so that young people who come here can understand what happened in this old building.

"This is how memory is preserved, this is how our heritage and homeland are protected," Georgiev concluded.