News

The House of Wannsee Conference – Memorial and Historical Education in Berlin has prepared an online exhibition An Unrechterinnern. Auf den Spuren sowjetischer Kriegsgefangener (Memory of the lawlessness. On the track of Soviet prisoners-of- war, where our memorial site is presented.

A photograph, depicting the Soviet Prisoners-of-War Cemetery with the Monument to the Martyrdom of Prisoners-of-War, was used to illustrate the place, to which the extremely complicated fate of one of the exhibition's heroes, Israil (Igor) Gurjewitsch, was connected. During World War II, he was held in Stalag 318/VIII F Lamsdorf, from where he was transferred to KL Gross-Rosen. Despite the extremely harsh conditions, hard labour and his Jewish origin, Gurjewitsch survived this difficult time. After the war, he returned to the USSR and to his acting profession. His prisoner-of-war past, however, landed him in jail. After his release in 1956, he returned to his hometown of Pensa, beginning a new life focused on work, studies, and family. Echoes of the war once again disrupted them. Only thanks to the persistence of his wife, who proved that he was not, as he had been accused, a collaborator in captivity, he was rehabilitated in 1963.

You can read the stories of people with exceptional strength and determination, like Israil (Igor) Gurjewitsch, at https://unrecht-erinnern.info/. We urge you to do so! The exhibition is in German and Russian.