Dark Tour

Description

Tour name: Dark Tour

Duration: 4 days

Start: Minsk National Airport

In the places where thousands of people were on the edge of life and died in agony, even the air is saturated with the tragedy and birds sing less. These places for a long time continue to inspire deep sorrow, helping society to recover from wars and disasters that are doomed to people by ambitions of the rulers and totalitarianism.

The program includes:
Transportation in a comfortable car on the route Airport - Hotel - Airport.

Accommodation in 3-4* hotel (downtown, near downtown)

Transfers on the route

Meals (according to the program)

Tours (according to the program)

Entrance tickets

1^st day

Arrival. Meeting with the guide.  Transfer to the hotel. Accommodation. Sightseeing tour around Minsk will introduce you with the history and culture of the city, give you the opportunity to see the most famous sights of the capital of Belarus. You will visit the Victory Square and stroll through the streets of the Trinity Hill. Rest. Overnight.

2^nd day

Breakfast at the hotel. A trip to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Visit of the Memorial “Pit”, located at Melnikaite Street, Minsk. “The Pit” is not exactly a monument. This place is a deep pit, in which on March 2, 1942 the Nazis shot and buried about 5,000 prisoners of the Minsk Concentration Camp, which retained mostly Jews. The descent into the pit leaves indelible feelings in each visitor. The Alley of the Righteous was laid there.

Then we’ll travel to the Trostenets Memorial Complex to the South part of Minsk.

In autumn 1943 in a half a kilometre from the village of Maly Trostenets, the Nazis built a furnace to burn shot people. This place was a huge pit with rails being stacked in it, over which a lattice was laid. The pit was equipped with a special descent, which was used to transport people in either covered gas vans or trucks with an open bed. The furnace worked without stopping. Only during a few days, about 6.5 thousand prisoners of the Minsk prison were terminated here. According to the number of victims, Trostenets gravely takes its fourth place in Europe after Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka.

Lunch. Next, we’ll go to the North-Eastern outskirts of Minsk to visit another sad place - the Memorial complex Kurapaty. In 1937 - 1940, this was a place of mass executions of the Soviet people, who had been repressed by People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). According to various estimates, up to 7 thousand people buried - victims of political repression of Stalin’s period - are still buried here.

Kurapaty has the status of historical and cultural value of the first category, and in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus on Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage, this corresponds to the status of the most unique spiritual values of Belarus. Arrival at the hotel. Rest.

3^rd day

Breakfast at the hotel. A trip to the Memorial complex Khatyn.  There once was an ordinary village. On March 22, 1943 punitive detachment in retaliation for the murder of several German soldiers burned alive 149 residents of Khatyn, mostly women, children and older people. This place has become a symbol of mass termination of the civilians by war criminals in the occupied territories.

Lunch. Return to Minsk. A visit to the Military Cemetery, which is one of the oldest necropoleis in the city, where many outstanding people of Belarus found their final rest. Return to the hotel. Rest. Overnight.

4^th day

Breakfast at the hotel. Departure to the airport.