After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, her great-grandfather’s brother was one of the (too) many Soviet soldiers captured on the Eastern Front and sent to the Nazi prisoner of war camp in Maribor. He died there in inhuman conditions and severe suffering in early February 1942.
Today’s reception at the MRC Maribor was emotional, commemorative, symbolic and professional in nature. The broader historical context was provided by the researcher Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daniel Siter from the Alma Mater Europaea University and the MRC Maribor, who gave a professional tour of the premises of the former camp and the exhibition and other educational content of the research center and museum.
After almost 85 years, Elnara returned to the scene where her ancestor also lost his life in the horrific conditions of the extermination unit of Stalag XVIII D (“Russenlager”). During the tour, as a sign of piety, she handed us original documents from her private family collection at the same point (at the freight dock) where her ancestor arrived in a crammed cattle wagon and in an exhausted state in September 1941. At the Pobreč cemetery, near the Peace Monument and the common grave, she discovered his name and surname inscription and symbolically said goodbye to him by laying flowers and exchanging soil between Kazan and Maribor.
