Around Vialiki Trascianiec, the Trostenets memorial sites illuminate history from several perspectives: as sites of Nazi crimes, as a landscape of remembrance, and as a memorial site developed later. In the summer of 2015, the first construction phase of the Maly Trostenets memorial complex opened as a memorial to the victims. When planning a trip, therefore, it is not just a single monument that is of interest; paths, woodland memorial sites, and the historical development of the memorial site each offer a different focus.

Memorial Landscape and Woodland

Several square kilometres around the Maly Trostenets memorial project, near Vyaliki Trastsyanets, were placed under state protection to prevent construction or other uses. The Blahovshchyna forest is also an important memorial site: it contains execution and mass graves, as well as the “Path of Death” and the “Forest of Remembrance.” Visitors exploring the site encounter not only individual monuments, but also a landscape where the memorial sites and their historical significance are present.

Monuments in the Area

The central monument of the memorial complex near Vyaliki Trastsyanets is the ten-metre-high bronze composition “Gates of Memory.” In Bolshoy Trostenets, a memorial square is part of the complex. An obelisk was erected there in 1963 in memory of the prisoners murdered at the Trostenets death camp. The obelisk commemorates the victims of Nazism; its features include an eternal flame. These different forms—a monumental composition, an obelisk, and a memorial square—each give remembrance its own visible expression.

Paths with Their Own History

The excursion route of the Trostenets memorial complex begins near Vyaliki Trastsyanets along the “Road of Death,” the route along which prisoners were led. Another memorial feature is Leonid Levin’s “Path of Death.” It invites visitors to retrace the victims’ final journey, past concrete suitcases and stylised railway carriages and through a section of forest to the mass graves or execution pits. The names of the paths are thus connected to different aspects of remembrance described here: the historical function of a route and the design of a memorial path.

Historical Context

The virtual tour of Trostenets explains the crimes committed during the German occupation and the site’s development into a memorial—from the end of the Second World War to the present day. The Historical Workshop offers themed tours and events about the history of the Minsk Ghetto, the Trostenets death camp, and other sites of Nazi crimes in Belarus. Another historical point of reference is the school museum in Bolshoy Trostenets, which opened on the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus. These different approaches provide an opportunity to consider both the history of individual crimes and the development of how they are remembered.

Plan Your Visit

You can choose a holiday apartment to suit the type of stay you have planned without having to follow a particular order for visiting the sites. Before visiting in person, check the current accessibility of the paths and memorial sites; access to the “Road of Death” should be checked separately.

Discover more destinations: Lyuban, Dory, Voŭčkavičy, Pavelkovo, Chaciežyna, Halica, Ždanovičy, Baravoe

For the broader travel overview: Minsk Region.