Press releases

MINSK, 17 October (BelTA) – Belarus is set to hold a series of events timed to the 75^th anniversary of the liquidation of the Minsk Ghetto. A commemorative rally will take place at The Pit memorial on 22 October, Belarus' Commissioner for Religions and Nationalities Leonid Gulyako told reporters on 17 October, BelTA has learned.

Invitations to attend the rally commemorating the victims of the Minsk Ghetto and the Holocaust were sent to Israel, the United States, European countries, as well as major international Jewish organizations, NGOs and former prisoners.

Leonid Gulyako unveiled the program of the Remembrance Days timed to the 75^th anniversary of the liquidation of the Minsk Ghetto by the Nazis. For example, films about those tragic events are already running at the Central Movie Theater in Minsk.

Thematic exhibitions will open in Minsk museums. Visitors to the National History Museum will be able to see drawings by artist Meyer Axelrod depicting the German occupation. The National Art Museum will house an exposition In Memory of the Minsk Ghetto. The exposition will feature drawings and paintings documenting that period.

Commemorative events will also be held at schools. Children will be able to meet with and talk to former inmates, their relatives and witnesses of those tragic events.

During the Second World War, the Nazis established in Minsk one of Europe’s largest ghettos with a total population of over 100,000 people. Almost all of them were murdered by the end of October 1943.

Germans set up several ghettos on the territory of Belarus. They housed not only local Jews, but also Jews from Germany, Poland and Austria.

The Pit memorial was unveiled in Minsk in 1946 to commemorate the Jews from the Minsk Ghetto who were massacred by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. The memorial was renovated in 2000.