Sculpture Dedicated to Victims of Minsk Ghetto

The sculpture dedicated to the victims of the Minsk ghetto was installed in Minsk on Pritytski Street in 2008. This monument was created in memory of the tragic events of World War II when Nazi occupiers shot more than 14,000 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto between 1941 and 1943. The monument symbolizes one of the most horrific acts of genocide in Belarus. The Minsk ghetto, which existed from July 20, 1941, to October 21, 1943, became one of the largest ghettos in the occupied territories of the USSR and the second largest in terms of prisoners after the Lviv ghetto. About 120,000 Jews were in the ghetto, of which at least 105,000 became victims of systematic shootings, starvation, epidemics, and unbearable living conditions. The first mass killings outside the ghetto occurred in November 1941 when thousands of Jews were gathered in the Tuchinka area, where clay pits had previously been located, and shot. This massacre lasted several days and marked the beginning of a series of mass shootings organized by the Nazis with the help of collaborationist groups. This monument serves as a reminder of the brutal crimes committed at this site and remains an eternal symbol of the suffering and death of the victims of the Minsk ghetto who endured horrific living conditions.