The Pit (memorial)


The Pit is a monument on the corner of Melnikayte and Zaslavskaya streets dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust in Minsk, Belarus. It is on the site where, on March 2, 1942, the Nazi forces shot about 5,000 inhabitants of the nearby Minsk Ghetto.
The obelisk was created in 1947, and in 2000 a bronze sculpture titled "The Last Way" was added. It represents a group of doomed victims descending the steps of the pit. The sculpture was created by the Belarusian artist and Chairman of the Jewish communities of Belarus, Leonid Levin, and the sculptor Elsa Pollak from Israel. On the obelisk is written in Russian and Yiddish, "To the shining memory of the bright days of five thousand Jews who perished at the hands of sworn enemies of humanity, German-fascist butchers, March 2, 1942."
When the reconstruction of the memorial was undertaken, no machinery was used and all work done by hand, a process which took eight years to complete. According to the original plan, the sculptural group was to be more detailed, but it was ultimately left with an expressive aesthetic, devoid of national colors, and includes figures of a violinist, children, and a pregnant woman, representing more collective characters. The memorial has been a target of vandalism. Funeral assemblies are held at the memorial every year on March 2.