Nowogródek, Poland

Getting there

Owing to the current political situation and ongoing war in Ukraine, it is necessary to check the most up-to-date information on which border crossings are open. Normally, there are trains from Warsaw to Minsk and good international connections by air to Minsk.

Buses run from Navahrudak to Minsk via Mir. To see the Naliboki Forest, you need your own transport.

Navahrudak, Belarus

Jewish Resistance Museum in Navahrudak (Музей еврейского сопротивления на Новогрудчине; 68/5 ul. Minskaya; entry fee) This museum, which opened in 2007, tells the story of the mass escape from the Korelicka labour camp and the remarkable rescue operation run by the Bielski Brothers. The exhibition is housed in the original barracks where the prisoners dug their 200m-long escape tunnel and includes a reconstruction of the interior living spaces, the entrance to the tunnel and a series of outdoor memorials.

The museum was created with the support of Jack Kagan, one of the Boys, who was a former prisoner in the Navahrudak Ghetto and a Bielski partisan.

Memorials

Kagan also financed and organised the construction of several monuments in and around Navahrudak, replacing Soviet memorials that did not mention that the victims were Jewish.

On the P10 highway that heads southwest from Navahrudak, a monument commemorates the 18,000 citizens killed by the Germans, among them 5,100 Jews, who were shot in December 1941 by Germans and Lithuanian collaborators behind the military barracks in Skrydlevo.

On the P5 that leads north to Vselyub from Navahrudak, another memorial, inaugurated in 2022, marks the site of the former home of František and Františka Bobrovský. The couple were murdered by the Nazis for helping Jews. The monument is dedicated to the 11 families of Navahrudak and the region’s residents who have been awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

Further along the P5 near the village of Litovka, a memorial remembers 4,000 Jews shot here by Estonian police in August 1942 and a further 500 Jews who were also shot here in February 1943, during the liquidation of the Navahrudak Ghetto.

On the P11 road that heads east out of Navahrudak in the direction of Selets, just past the petrol station, there is a memorial on the mass grave where in May 1943 more than 250 Jews from the Korelicka labour camp were murdered.

We Stood Shoulder to Shoulder (2010) Jack Kagan Kagan fought with the Jewish partisans and was one of the Boys. To find out more about the book click here.

Surviving the Holocaust With the Russian Jewish Partisans (2023) Dov Cohen and Jack Kagan Two cousins relate their experiences with Bielski’s partisan brigade in war-torn Russia World War II. To find out more about the book click here.