Berlin
On December 3, 2021, as part of the celebration of the Day of the Unknown Soldier in Berlin, wreaths were solemnly laid at the Soviet memorial in the Tiergarten. The memory of the fallen heroes was honored by the Ambassador of Russia to the Federal Republic of Germany Sergey Nechaev and other employees of the Russian Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany, representatives of the Orthodox clergy, compatriots living in Germany, as well as school students at the Russian Embassy in Germany.
The memorial complex in the Tiergarten was erected in 1945 in memory of the Soviet soldiers who died in the battles for Berlin. The number of those buried is about 2,500 people, of which 178 names have been immortalized.
Dusseldorf
This year, the Day of the Unknown Soldier was celebrated in Dusseldorf in a special way ─ motorcyclists of the “Guard of Memory” movement lit commemorative torches and candles at the war memorial. A solemn event, illuminated by the fire of memory, touching to tears, took place at the obelisk to Soviet soldiers and prisoners of war who died in captivity in the city on the Rhine. There is a huge burial place – the Soviet memorial cemetery in Dusseldorf (“Der Sowjetische Ehrenfriedhof”), where more than 1,500 people are buried.
These are the soldiers who, in the distant 40s of the last century, breathed a breath of air in a foreign land for the last time and never returned home. Their names are not found on stone slabs today. The descendants know nothing about them. None of the relatives will come to their graves. Therefore, today the Russian-speaking migrants of Germany, in whose hearts a real genuine story lives, are giving their debt to the memory of the heroic martyrs.
The Day of the Unknown Soldier already has its own traditions in Germany, but, unfortunately, so far it is not celebrated on such a large scale as, for example, the celebration of Victory Day. That is why the movement of Russian-speaking motorcyclists “Guard of Memory” came up with the initiative to hold such an event. “We want this day to be celebrated in Germany everywhere, where the graves of Soviet prisoners of war are located,” says Sergei Bezler, the founder of the Guard of Memory movement. – Using the example of our initiative, we call on all caring people on the third day of December and all year round – to remember the feat of our compatriots, visit burial places, go on memory raids, light candles on mass graves, where, perhaps, there are no names, but there is a memory of yours hearts. We would like to draw your attention to bikers, because they are always mobile and always on the move. “
This evening the weather did not bode well, but it did not stop anyone. At the memorial, candles were lit one after another, bikers stood in a solemn guard with torches, at the obelisk in the rain tongues of eternal flame burst into the darkness into the darkness.
The Day of the Unknown Soldier event was also attended by representatives of the public organization “Memory” (“Gеdenken”), headed by Alexander Rossolay, one of the first to enter the “Guard of Memory”. Actually from this public organization the biker movement of “guards” grew up. Alexander traditionally treated those present with Russian pies and hot tea. People brought flowers and candles.
By the way, the Pamyat organization does not receive financial support and manages only with its own resources and resources. More recently, its members planted tulips at the burial site, which should bloom by May 9, Victory Day. And so on throughout the year ─ good deeds ─ for each memorable date. Everything is voluntary, without stretching out a pleading hand to officials and businessmen, so that they do not think that kindness and memory among compatriots exist in Germany only “at someone’s expense.”
Jana FRANCE,
photo of the author.
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