Belarus takes steps to establish a Holocaust and resistance museum

A landmark agreement was signed on Wednesday to establish the first Holocaust museum in Belarus.

The Belarusian Museum of the Holocaust and Resistance will be based in the town of Novogrudok, where 11,000 Jews were murdered under Nazi occupation.

It was also the site of an extraordinary act of Jewish resistance on September 26, 1943, when 250 ghetto prisoners carried out the largest documented tunnel escape in Nazi-occupied Europe, digging a 250-metre tunnel in secret over five months.

Many of the escapees joined the Bielski partisans, the only all-Jewish partisan unit in Belarus, who rescued more than 1,200 Jews while fighting Nazi forces from their forest encampment in the Naliboki Forest.

The historic agreement, signed on July 10, 2025, brings together the Jewish Religious Union in the Republic of Belarus (chaired by Artur Livshyts and the official partner of UK-based charity The Together Plan), the Belarusian MIR foundation, and the Novogrudok district executive committee.

Debra Brunner, co-founder of The Together Plan, told Jewish News: “The story of the Bielski partisans, immortalized in the film Defiance, is not just one of resistance—it is one of rescue, resilience, and community.”

She added that the museum will “honour not only the victims, but also the bravery and humanity of those who fought back, often with nothing more than their will to survive and protect others.”

Artur Livshyts, who also chairs the Jewish Religious Union in Belarus, said: “This is not just a museum—it is a commitment to truth, to education, and to peace. In remembering our past, we lay the groundwork for a more tolerant and just future.”

The new institution will expand upon the existing Museum of Jewish Resistance in Novogrudok, which will become part of the broader Belarusian Museum of the Holocaust and Resistance.