Brest marked the creation of a memorial to Holocaust victims, which was erected at the site of a mass grave of 350 Jews from Brest murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The opening of the monument, located in a local cemetery, was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR.
At the opening ceremony, the organizers explained that the remains of Jews killed by the Nazis in September 1942 on the outskirts of the former village of Gershony were reburied in this mass grave. This site now falls within the city limits of Brest.
According to former residents’ recollections, the Nazis’ victims executed here in Gershony included old men, women and children. This is the site of one of the very first mass executions of Jews during the war.
“In the Brest region alone, there were 76 places where numbers of Jews were executed during World War II. To date, 17 memorials to Holocaust victims have been erected and this year, two more will be raised in the Ivatsevichi district,” explained Boris Bruck, Chairman of the Brest Jewish organization “Brisk.” Participants in the event laid wreaths and flowers at the monument and remembered the victims with a moment of silence.
The memorial monument was made of granite. The crown of the monument is a menorah with a memorial inscription written in Hebrew, Belarusian and English “Victims of Nazism. Here are buried the remains of 350 Jews who brutally suffered at the hands of the Nazis in 1942.” The monument was designed by the famous Minsk architect Leonid Levin, who is also the Chairman of the Association of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities. The funds for creating the memorial were allocated by the Lazarus Foundation (UK).