Maly Trostenets extermination camp
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Maly Trostenets (Belarusian: Малы́ Трасьцяне́ц; Russian: Ма́лый Тростене́ц), a small village on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, was the site of a relatively less known but highly efficient — and prolific — Nazi extermination camp.
Originally built in the summer of 1941 as a concentration camp to house Soviet prisoners of war who had been captured following the German attack on Soviet Union which commenced on June 22 of that year (known as Operation Barbarossa), the camp became a Vernichtungslager, or extermination camp, on May 10, 1942 when the first transport of Jews arrived there. While many Jews from Germany, Austria and the present-day Czech Republic met their deaths there (in most cases almost immediately upon their arrival), the primary purpose of the camp was the extermination of the substantial Jewish community of Minsk and the surrounding area.
On June 28, 1944, as the Red Army approached the region, the Nazis bombed the camp in an attempt to obliterate evidence of its existence. No survivors of the camp are known to exist, and estimates of the number of people killed there range from 200,000 to more than half a million.
A memorial has been built at the site of the camp, and attracts thousands of visitors annually, especially since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which has eased travel restrictions.de:Vernichtungslager Maly Trostinez nl:Maly Trostenets