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Destination directory · Belarus

וויטעבסק

Vitebsk

Visitor experience

Practical notes from visitors — access, directions, and the condition of the site.

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וויטעבסק — בית החיים

Vitebsk — the Jewish cemetery

Jewish cemetery, Vitebsk, Vitebsk Region, Belarus

  • IT IS BIG AND IT IS IN THREE PARTS — around six thousand three hundred kevorim, split into three sections of roughly two and a half, two and a half, and one and a half thousand. Know which section before you start walking.
  • THE OLDER GRAVES ARE ON THE RIGHT OF THE CENTRE, and many of them were moved here from other grounds around the city. The kevorim on the left are from before the revolution and between the wars, and a great many of those need restoring rather than merely finding.
  • EIGHTY-ONE YEARS WITH NOBODY WATCHING. From 1918 until 1999 the cemetery had no security at all, and most of the pre-revolutionary matzevos were broken up or taken — the granite and marble ones went into the insides of buildings. The fence and gate were rebuilt between 1993 and 1997.
  • The third section was used in secret from the nineteen-sixties on, during the years when burying here was forbidden. Kevorim from that period are not where the records would put them.
  • The Vitebsk Foundation, at the museum on Gogol street, house 17, flat 24, is the address that holds more than the surveys do.
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Getting there

The nearest airports, and the drive at the end of each.

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Questions

What people ask before they go.

Where is the beis hachaim in Vitebsk?

Vitebsk — the Jewish cemetery — Jewish cemetery, Vitebsk, Vitebsk Region, Belarus.

Which airport is closest to Vitebsk?

Minsk National (MSQ), about 202 km · 126 mi away in a straight line. The other airports within reach are Vilnius International (VNO) and Kaunas International (KUN). There is no direct flight to the town itself, so the last leg is by road whichever airport you use.