Holocaust memorial site Minsk Ghetto

[robin morley]

A few photo's I have taken of the memorial to those killed in the Minsk Ghetto. At a place called Yama close to central Minsk stands a monument dedicated to 5,000 Jews killed by the Nazis on that spot the day before Purim 1942. Erected in 1946, the monument was the first and only one in the USSR devoted to the Holocaust which displayed Yiddish writing. Remarkably, not only did the monument survive the efforts of Stalin to eradicate all traces of Jewishness, but it also became the only one in Belarus where Jews could legally gather without any interference from the government, which they did throughout the period of Communist rule. Today, the ditch has been expanded to include a walkway and plaza, trees planted for Righteous Gentiles. There is an evocative sculpture that stands on a slope parallel to the steps leading into the pit of Yama, depicting Jews being forced down into the ravine. A memorial ceremony is annually held there attended by emissaries of the Jewish Agency, who are here for their annual conference. We have thousands of monuments here in Belarus, and on most of them it says that 'Soviet citizens were killed here,' even if 100 percent of those killed were Jews," said Baruch Camil, head of the agency's operation in Belarus. "But this is the only one in Yiddish. It was something that kept the Jewish community together, whatever that 'community' was, where together they could do something as Jews, even during the time of Stalin and during the Communist period. I heard one of the Jews who came say, 'those who died here kept us alive as Jews.'

According to my guide the remains of those killed are buried here also. Although I have been unable to verify this.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Thanks Robin, never ceases to amaze me that so many of the sites of these horrific crimes now look so beautiful. Leon.