The total archive
contains information about the plight of 500,000 Soviet citizens.
MOSCOW, April 30.
/TASS/. Germany is about to hand over to Russia the first batch of digitized
archive information about Soviet prisoners of war who had been kept at German
camps during World War II. The special ceremony will take place at the TASS
head office in Moscow on May 6, the German embassy said.
"The handover of
digitized copies of documents from Germany’s federal archive within the
framework of the German-Russian project for searching for and digitizing
archive materials concerning Soviet and German prisoners of war and interned
persons dating back to World War II will take place in Moscow," the
embassy said. "The ceremony will be held at the TASS press-center, with
Germany’s ambassador to Russia Geza Andreas von Geyr and Russia’s special
presidential representative for international cultural cooperation Mikhail
Shvydkoi taking part.
Messages of greeting
will be read out from Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Russian
counterpart Sergey Lavrov. There will be a presentation of the
"German-Russian project for searching for and digitizing archive materials
concerning Soviet and German prisoners of war and its humanitarian and
political significance."
Germany will open to
Russian specialists information about Soviet prisoners of war and forced
laborers, which is kept at the federal archive in Koblenz. The archive contains
information about the plight of 500,000 Soviet citizens.
It is expected that
taking part in the online conference will be the President of the German
People's Union for the Care of Military Graves, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and the
President of Germany’s Federal Archives, Michael Hollman.
At the TASS
press-center Germany will be represented by German embassy officials and
staffers of the German Historical Institute in Moscow, and Russia, by the
deputy chief of the Federal Archive Agency Andrei Yurasov, director of the
Russian State Military Archive Vladimir Tarasov, president of ELAR corporation
Sergei Balandyuk, the Russian Defense Minster’s aide Alexander Kirilin, and
chief of the Defense Ministry’s Directorate for Commemorating Fallen Soldiers
Pavel Sheludchenko.
Source: ITAR-TASS
01-05-2020
