Zaslavskaya Jewish Memorial

 

My father's ancestors were probably Jews called Muller, who came over from Germany or Eastern Europe in about the 1820s. If they weren't Jewish, they were certainly German, but my father always maintained that they were Jewish, although he was very much an agnostic. He was also proud that he'd fought Oswald Mosley and his black-shirted fascists at the Battle of Cable Street. Interestingly, he was a left-wing Tory all his life, so although the battle is claimed by communists and socialists as their own, it was very much one fought by all of those who detested Mosley and his aims.

But what happened in the East End of London was tame compared to what happend in Minsk.

A total of over 700,000 Jews were killed in Belarus In World War II. Many in Minsk were murdered by the 12th Lithuanian Police Auxiliary Battalion, who are thought to have killed over 42,000 Jews, partisans and Communist Party members.

The Zaslavskaya Jewish Memorial has been built at the spot where five thousand Jews were killed in March 1942.

Like the Island of Tears, it is immaculately kept.