Today I had a long drive on my list about 400 km back to Minsk - with a stop at the Chatyn memorial complex - which was erected to remember the 5295 villages that where burned down by the Wehrmacht and on this special place all the villagers were burned to death (152 people including 76 children) because Hans Woelke, a German Olympia medal winner was shot in the road near to this village on a military mission - therefore Hitler ordered the destruction of the whole village on the very same day with all the inhabitants - only 3 kids and the 76 old man survived th fire and he is the one one on the sculpture - the obelisk represent the chimney so the houses and every minute a bell rings ....
The Russians have built this site in the 1960s and there is some rumours that the place was chose to cover up the killing of 4400 polish officers in a place that sounded similar like this one ....history is cruel either way....
Anyhow today on Saturday many people made the 40 km out here from Minks to commemorate- this part of the history is still deep in the souls of many people
The complete opposite I visited after this - the stalin line - the defence line that Atalin build to prevent Hitler from entering Russian territory- it did not help as we know - remains can still be seen here together with amour of all kinds and the families use this as a playground - bit strange when kids climb around tanks ...
The children's version of a tank - the paining makes it really cosy don't you think
The remaining defence lines of the Stalin line
Not so cosy inside
The stalin line cutting Europe in two
I returned to Minsk and was bumping after my dinner into the local Minsk Jazz festival on the main square - with many live acts - what a great surprise to finish this trip
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