Vialiki Trascianiec: Remembering Trostenets

Around Vialiki Trascianiec, memorial sites in the Trostenets complex are linked to the remembrance of Nazi crimes. Protected landscapes, monuments, historic paths, and a virtual tour each offer a different perspective. If you are planning a stay focused on history, these approaches can help you decide which topics you would like to explore further.

Memorial landscape near Maly Trostenets

Several square kilometres in the area around Vialiki Trascianiec have been placed under state protection to prevent construction or other uses; this protective measure is connected with the Maly Trostenets memorial project. The protected area therefore encompasses not just a single monument, but the wider setting of the memorial project. The Blahovshchyna Forest contains execution and mass graves, as well as the “Path of Death” and the “Forest of Remembrance”. The presence of forest, graves, and named memorial paths side by side makes clear that the memorial site consists of more than monuments alone.

Monuments and historical dates

The first phase of construction of the Maly Trostenets memorial complex opened in the summer of 2015 in the area around Vialiki Trascianiec as a memorial to the victims. The central monument of the Trostenets memorial complex is the ten-metre-high bronze composition “Gates of Memory”.

The obelisk in Bolshoy Trostenets was erected in 1963 in memory of the prisoners murdered at the Trostenets death camp. It was erected with an eternal flame in memory of the victims of Nazism. In the area, you will therefore find both a central bronze monument and a historic memorial obelisk dating from 1963.

Paths of remembrance

The excursion route of the Trostenets memorial complex begins in the area around Vialiki Trascianiec, following the “Road of Death”. The name refers to the route along which prisoners were led. If you are planning to follow this excursion route, check its current accessibility before your visit.

Leonid Levin’s “Path of Death” invites visitors to retrace the victims’ final journey: past concrete suitcases and stylised railway carriages, through a section of forest, and on to the mass graves or execution pits. These named elements give the path a concrete form and draw attention to the design of the memorial. Together with the “Forest of Remembrance” and the graves in the Blahovshchyna Forest, the path shows how routes and landscape are incorporated into the memorial sites in different ways.

Virtual and thematic approaches

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. It offers a view across time; the monuments and paths described above, by contrast, draw attention to specific forms of remembrance.

The Historical Workshop offers themed tours and events on the history of the Minsk Ghetto, the Trostenets death camp, and other sites of Nazi crimes in Belarus. Its focus therefore extends beyond the memorial sites near Vialiki Trascianiec. The different topics can help you place these memorial sites in the broader context of Nazi crimes in Belarus.

Discover more destinations: Halica, Osipovichi, Zadomlya, Lahojsk, Zhodzina, Novaye Pole, Smoĺnica, Apčak.

Return to the overview of the wider region: Minsk Region.