• Start date:  06.12.2021
• End date:  06.12.2021
• RU:  В ТАСС прошла конференция по случаю выхода фильма "Освободители. Забытые лагеря Остмарка"
• Status: Completed

The documentary film (16+) was presented by the Russian-Austrian Public Forum "Sochi Dialogue" and the Alexander Pechersky Foundation. The event was attended by co-chairs of the Russian-Austrian commission of historians Alexander Chubarian and Stefan Karner, Natalia Koneva, daughter of Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev - liberator of Vienna, and Chairman of the Board of Alexander Pechersky Foundation Ilya Vasiliev.

Filming began on September 15 in Gneixendorf, a village near Krems in Lower Austria where Stalag (prisoner of war camp) was located. The group was guided by Christine Eigner, whose family helped Stalag prisoner Dmitri Chirov to survive, Marta Pichler, his German translator, and artist and sculptor Christian Gmeiner, who created a memorial composition in memory of concentration camp prisoners. The film is about the the liberation of the Kaisersteinbruch concentration camp. In addition, historians, relatives of former prisoners and family members of people who participated in the liberation of the Nazi camps and the reconstruction of Austria after the war take part in the film.

A.A. Fursenko, co-chairman of the Sochi Dialogue and assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, said: "I am sure that the production of the film will be an important milestone not only in strengthening humanitarian ties between Russia and Austria, but will also help to popularize the historical exploits of unbroken Soviet prisoners of war and prevent attempts to distort the role of the Red Army in liberating prisoners of concentration camps."

Co-chairman of the Russian-Austrian Public Forum "Sochi Dialogue" Andrey Fursenko also believes that "Preserving the memory of Nazi crimes and the feat of the Soviet soldiers-liberators helps to avoid the repetition of tragedies and maintains peace in the world".

Austrian Ambassador to the Russian Federation Werner Almhofer commented: "The documentary film "Liberators. Forgotten Camps of the Ostmark" about the liberation of Nazi camps on Austrian territory by the Red Army is an important contribution to the war memory".

"We are grateful to Sochi Dialogue for their full support," says Ilya Vasiliev, chairman of the board of the Alexander Pechersky Foundation. - We are sure that the release of the film about the liberation of Nazi camps by the Red Army on the territory of Austria will memorialize this forgotten page of our shared history.

The television premiere of the film took place earlier on channel Zvezda.

Now the Pechersky Foundation and the Sochi Dialogue are preparing a German-language version of the film, which, hopefully, will also be shown on Austrian television.