When I told my Ukrainian friends, I would travel to Belarus, they all said ‘oh, it’s so tidy there’. Yes it is. But beyond tidiness, excellent roads, overwhelming hospitality and good hotels, there is also more to discover: a rich and diverse history, of which the Jewish component is an important part. For 12 days, my friends Achim, Petra, our knowledgable and charming tour guide Juliana Mikolutskaya and I explored the Jewish heritage sites in the west of the country. We started in Minsk on 19 April.
Minsk – Choral Synagogue
Minsk – Zaltman’s Synagogue
Minsk – shop in a former Jewish neighbourhood
Minsk – synagogue “of the churches”
Minsk – memorial at a mass shooting site
Minsk – memorial at a mass shooting site
Minsk – returned tombstone in the memorial park, once a Jewish cemetery
Minsk – returned tombstones in the memorial park, once a Jewish cemetery
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Minsk – Maly Trostinets memorial
Vanished World 