MINSK -- Belarusian officials, foreign diplomats, and representatives of Jewish organizations have gathered in Minsk for three days of events commemorating the killing of thousands of Jews during World War II.
The commemorations mark the 75th anniversary since an estimated 22,000 Jews brought by the Nazis from other European cities were executed between October 21-23, 1943.
On October 22, an event was held at Minsk's Yama (the Pit) memorial to mourn the more than 5,000 people from the city's Jewish ghetto who were killed on March 2, 1942.
The three-day commemorations also include concerts, conferences, and the screening of documentaries.
Before World War II, some 900,000 Jews lived in Belarus.
The Minsk ghetto, created soon after the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, housed nearly 100,000 Jews. Most of them perished in the Holocaust.
