Alternate names: Minsk [Rus, Yid], Mensk [Bel], Mińsk [Pol], Minskas [Lith], Miensk. Belarusian: Мінск. Russian: Минск. מינסק - Yiddish: 53°54' N, 27°34' E. Capitol. 1900 Jewish population: 48,000. ShtetLink. JOWBR Landsmanshaft: Roselawn, Toronto, Canada. Yizkors:Albom Minsk (Jerusalem, 1988); Minsk, Ir va-'em: Korot, Ma'asim, Ishim, Havai (Jerusalem, 1975-85); Getto Minsk ve-toldotav le-or ha-teud he-hadash (Ramat Gan, 2000) Town images and links.

• Cemetery on Sochaya Street:  "Unidentified assailants have smashed dozens of Jewish tombstones in Belarus, prompting Jewish activists to accuse Belarusian authorities Friday of inaction amid a string of anti-Semitic incidents. ... 19 tombstones destroyed at one cemetery in ... Minsk. ... Last week, more than 70 tombstones were desecrated in the city of Borisov east of Minsk, and police arrested some teenagers suspected of committing the attack... " Source: Ha'aretz English Edition: July 22, 2002-Av 13, 5762 [July 2002] images [March 2009]

photos of monuments to the German Jews killed in the outskirts of Minsk from 1941-1942. Two of massacre sites of Jews near a village Malyi Trostenets and memorials. Monument in memory of more than 200,000 Jews from Minsk and the countries of Western Europe near a village Malyi Trostenets. Massacre site of 5000 Jews of Minsk on March, 2, 1942 and memorial. photos of various Holocaust memorials [March 2009]

Yama: October 2008 memorial service News Article: Belarus Marks Ghetto's Destruction 65 Years On: "The Minsk ghetto, known as the Yama, or Pit, was one of Europe's largest. More than 100,000 Jews were killed there from August 1941. Most were shot in the street outside their homes. In October 1943, the Germans demolished ghetto buildings in an effort to find Jews in hiding. The remaining 2,000 Jews were rounded up and killed." [March 2009]

Yama : "In a large pit in the middle of town here, at a place called Yama, stands a monument dedicated to 5,000 Jews killed by the Nazis in 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 was held there yesterday 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.' "Source: [3 Jan 2001]

UPDATE: “The remains of 21 Jews who died of natural causes two centuries ago have been reburied, a few weeks after they were found beneath the central square in Minsk, Belarus. The remains of 11 men and 10 women were found by workers rebuilding the square on the site where a Jewish cemetery, closed since 1846, once stood.” Source: Dateline World Jewry, November 2002. [December 2002]