Obj. ID: 53345
Memorials Alley dedicated to “Righteous Among the Nations” at the killing Site at Yama in Minsk, Belarus, 1996
To the main object: "Black Obelisk" at the Yama killing site in Minsk, Belarus, 1946
Memorial name:
No official name.
Who is Commemorated?
Belorussian Righteous Among the Nations.
Description:
The alley dedicated to the Righteous Among the Nations is a part of the Holocaust memorial "Yama" in Minsk that is erected at the killing site/mass grave near Melnikayte (former Ratomskaya) Street, at the former sand quarry. According to witnesses, in the early after-war years the memorial's territory was surrounded by wild grass and bushes. However, due to the changing political regime, the Yama was transformed from a peripheral wasteland to a significant place of collective remembrance. This happened in the 1970s when the present design of the Pit, including the paved area in front of the so-called "black obelisk" and the stairs leading to it, was embodied.
The alley under discussion was laid in 1996 and is dedicated to the non-Jewish Belarussian citizens who were officially recognized by the State of Israel as the Righteous Among the Nations. The plaque with the memorial's name, dating to 1996, is installed at the beginning of the alley and is inscribed in Belorussian. Additional plaques and stone markers with the names of the Belorussian Righteous Among the Nations were installed along the alley in 2010 and are inscribed in Belarussian and Hebrew.
Inscriptions:
On the plaque with the memorial name, in Belarussian
Aлея
Праведнiкаў
Сусвету
У гонар жыхароў Беларусi
ратаваўшых яўрэяў у гады
фащысцкай акупацыi
1941-1944
Translation: Alley of the Belorussian Righteous Among the Nations, who saved Jews in the years of Fascist occupation, 1941-1944.
Commissioned by
The survivors of the Minsk ghetto.
sub-set tree: 
On June 28, 1941, the Germans occupied Minsk. On July 19, 1941, an order was given for the creation of a ghetto [The Map of Holocaust by Bullets: Yahad-In Unum].
According to numerous testimonies, in the course of the mass-murder operation carried out in early March 1942, some ghetto inmates were shot at a sand quarry on the ghetto's northern outskirts, near Ratomskaya (present-day Melnikayte) Street, known popularly as "Yama" (the "Pit") [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
Today, the Yama memorial consists of several parts installed in different periods and by different actors. The commemoration began in 1946 when the first monument in the form of the black granite obelisk was erected by the Jewish stone master Mordukh Sprishen. In 2000 a menorah-shaped stela and a composition called "Last Way" were installed in the Yama memorial with the participation of the Belarusian government.
The Alley to the Righteous among the Nations memorizes Belarusians who were saving Jews during the war. It was built in 1996, and considering general tendencies in Belarusian politics of memory of this time, this part of the memorial can be interpreted as a state’s effort to integrate Holocaust history into Belarusian national narrative. In fact, the creation of the alley was not the idea of local authorities but of Leonid Levin, - the creator of the Yama Holocaust memorial - and most probably represented his actual deep gratitude to those who risked their lives to save Jews [Semenchenko].
In November 2006 the Yama Holocaust memorial was damaged in a vandal attack: vandals splashed white paint on the bronze figures of the "Last Way" monument and painted a large white swastika on the obelisk [London: BBC Worldwide Limited - BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union].
During the Soviet period, annually on May 9 (the Soviet Victory Day), the Jews of Minsk would gather there to commemorate their beloved departed – despite opposition from the Soviet authorities, who did their best to prevent the Jews from doing this [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. Till today, the monument is the place of the commemorative ceremonies.
Kuz'mich Marina, "Desiat' novykh imyon Pravednikov narodov mira uvekovecheny na allee u memorial'nogo kompleksa "Yama" v Minske," Belarus' segodnia, November 29, 2021, https://www.sb.by/articles/desyat-novykh-imen-pravednikov-narodov-mira-uvekovecheny-na-allee-u-memorialnogo-kompleksa-yama-v-mi.html (accessed May 20, 2024)
Semenchenko, Maryna, "Memorials to the Holocaust Victims in Minsk, Belarus: History, Design, Impact," Masters Degree Project in Urbanism Studies (Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2018)
"The Pit Memorial / Yama,", https://audiowalks.centropa.org/ru/ostanovka/7-%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB-%D1%8F%D0%BC%D0%B0/ (accessed November 19, 2024)