Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Minsk Cemetery Desecrated

June 29, 1976
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

According to reports reaching the National Conference on Soviet Jewry all that remains of the historic Minsk cemetery is “one part of one tombstone.” the rest has been completely desecrated and destroyed by the Soviet authorities. A recent visitor said that the Soviet officials had bulldozed the entire cemetery to make way for a dance floor Trenches cut across the vast area and a soccer field has already been erected in one section of the cemetery.

“We literally walked on the bones of the dead, which surfaced when excavation work began.” the visitor confided. “A Minsk activist told us that the destruction began the day after the Six Day War when an iron fence which had surrounded the cemetery was dismantled and sold to a cooperative farm.”

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement