On 29 June 2018, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Elke Büdenbender travelled to the opening of the second section of the Maly Trostenets memorial site in the Republic of Belarus.

The Federal President gave a speech at the memorial ceremony, which was attended by guests from all over the world. He also met President Alexandr Lukashenko for talks and participated in a conference organised by the Association for International Education and Exchange (IBB) under the motto Remembrance for a common European future.

Between 1942 and 1944, Maly Trostenets was the largest National Socialist extermination camp in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Like many other sites in the former Soviet Union, it is little known in Germany and Europe as a place of extermination. Victims primarily included Belarusian, Austrian, German and Czech Jews, civilians, resistance fighters and partisans. The Federal President intends to use the visit to commemorate the victims and also to raise awareness of this place of extermination among the German public.

Overview of the programme:

Friday, 29 June

• Flight to Minsk/Belarus
  thereafter, Palace of Independence
  Talks with Alexandr Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus
• Maly Trostenets extermination camp memorial site
  Tour of the memorial site
• Speech at the inauguration of the memorial site
  thereafter
  Proceed together to the memorial stone by Blagovshchina Forest and meet survivors and descendants
  thereafter, Palace of Independence
  Luncheon hosted by Alexandr Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus
• IBB Johannes Rau
  Opening of the conference Remembrance for a common European future
  thereafter, Residence of the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany
  Talks with Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• Evening
  Flight to Berlin