The Pit (memorial)
Encyclopedia
The Pit is a monument on the corner of Melnikayte and Zaglavskaya streets devoted to the victims of the Holocaust in Minsk
, Belarus
. It is on the site where, on March 2, 1942, the Nazi forces shot about 5000 prisoners of the nearby Minsk Ghetto
.
The obelisk
was created in 1947 and in 2000 a bronze
sculpture entitled "The Last Way" was added. It represents a group of doomed martyrs, walking down the steps of the pit. The sculpture was created by Belarusian artist, Chairman of the Jewish communities of Belarus, Leonid Levin
and sculptor from Israel Elsa Pollack. On the obelisk is written in Russian
and Yiddish "The bright memory of five times the light of thousands of Jews who perished at the hands of sworn enemies of humanity - German-fascist monsters"
When reconstruction of the memorial was undertaken no machinery was used and all work done by hand, a process which took eight years to complete. According to the original plan for the group sculpture it was to be more detailed but eventually was left with an expressive aesthetic, devoid of national colors, and includes figures of a violinist, children, and a pregnant woman who represent more collective characters. The memorial has been a target for vandalism. Every year on March 2 in Memorial funeral memorial rallies occur.
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. It is on the site where, on March 2, 1942, the Nazi forces shot about 5000 prisoners of the nearby Minsk Ghetto
Minsk Ghetto
The Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest in Eastern Europe, and the largest in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union...
.
The obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
was created in 1947 and in 2000 a bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
sculpture entitled "The Last Way" was added. It represents a group of doomed martyrs, walking down the steps of the pit. The sculpture was created by Belarusian artist, Chairman of the Jewish communities of Belarus, Leonid Levin
Leonid Levin
-External links:* at Boston University....
and sculptor from Israel Elsa Pollack. On the obelisk is written in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Yiddish "The bright memory of five times the light of thousands of Jews who perished at the hands of sworn enemies of humanity - German-fascist monsters"
When reconstruction of the memorial was undertaken no machinery was used and all work done by hand, a process which took eight years to complete. According to the original plan for the group sculpture it was to be more detailed but eventually was left with an expressive aesthetic, devoid of national colors, and includes figures of a violinist, children, and a pregnant woman who represent more collective characters. The memorial has been a target for vandalism. Every year on March 2 in Memorial funeral memorial rallies occur.