Khatyn
The Khatyn Memorial Complex is a monument to the victims of the Nazi genocide on Belarusian soil, embodying the tragedy of hundreds of villages destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. On March 22, 1943, punitive forces burned Khatyn along with its inhabitants: 149 people died, including 75 children. The architectural and artistic ensemble, opened in 1969 (authors: architects Yu. Gradov, V. Zankovich, L. Levin, sculptor S. Selikhanov), is built as a spatial metaphor for grief. The central image is a bronze figure of the “Unconquered Man” holding a dead child in his arms – the embodiment of perseverance and grief. On the site of each of the 26 burnt houses there is an obelisk-chimney with a bell and a memorial plaque; the bells ring every 30 seconds to mark the minute of remembrance. The complex includes a symbolic “Village Cemetery” and a “Wall of Memory” with the names of the death camps. “Khatyn” is not only a memorial to one village, but also a collective image of the suffering of civilians, an important object of historical memory and anti-war consciousness.