Lecture and discussion:
Extermination Site Malyj Trostenez. History, remembrance and perspectives

An event in the History in Conflict series

with Dr. Kristiane Janeke (Bundeswehr Centre for Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam)
and Dr. Astrid Sahm (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. German Institute for International and Security Affairs)

Maly Trostenets, on the outskirts of Minsk in Belarus, was the largest mass extermination site on the territory of the German-occupied Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. Between 1942 and the liberation of the camp in June 1944, tens of thousands of people - mainly Jews, but also Soviet prisoners of war and political prisoners - were cruelly murdered there. The site and the crimes committed at Malyj Trostenez are little known. Today, a memorial complex is located here, which was inaugurated in two stages in 2015 and 2018. Its creation was supported by an international memorial initiative involving social actors from Belarus, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. The appearance of the memorial complex plays an important role in the current debates on how to deal with the past in Belarus today. Both the historical reappraisal and the appearance and handling of the memorial site are sometimes the subject of controversial debate.

The event will focus on the history of the Malyj Trostenez camp on the one hand and on current developments surrounding the memorial site and today's culture of remembrance on the other.

On the evening of the event, the museum will be open until the event begins at 7 pm.