On June 29, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko opened a Trostenets Memorial in memory of the victims of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War in the tract of Blagovshina. The opening ceremony was attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, as well as representatives of state and public organizations from Poland, the Czech Republic and Israel.
“Trostenets” is the fourth largest death camp in Europe (after “Auschwitz”, “Majdanek” and “Treblinka”). During the Second World War, the fascists killed more than 200,000 people here – Belarusians, citizens of other republics of the USSR, as well as Jews brought here from Western European countries, including Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. However, it is difficult to calculate the exact number of victims, and even more so to name their names: the Nazis did everything to hide the traces of their crimes. From October to December 1943, they opened ditches, where the victims were buried, and burned their bodies.
The death camp “Trostenets” was created in the fall of 1941 on the territory of the Karl Marx collective farm and included several places where people were massacred: the Shashkovka tract – the place of mass burning of people, the tract of Blagovshchina – the place of mass executions and the village of Maly Trostenets – actually, the death camp ( in 10 km from Minsk).
The History of Trostenets Memorial
In 1963, on the site of the former death camp, an obelisk with eternal fire was erected in memory of the victims of Trostenets.
In 1965, a monument was erected on the site of the burning of 6,500 prisoners. In the same year, a monument was erected on the site of the cremation pit-furnace where about 50,000 people were burned.
In 2002, on the site of the most large-scale shootings in the tract of Blagovshchina a memorial sign was installed.
The decision to create a large memorial complex in Blagovshchina was adopted several years ago. In 2015, there appeared the central composition “The Gate of Memory”, as well as other objects.
