join us for an important conversation

7pm BST | 11am PST | 2pm EST | 9pm Israel

Novogrudok was once home to a vibrant Jewish community whose history was profoundly shaped by the Holocaust. On 26 September 1943, the last Jews remaining in the Novogrudok Ghetto (approximately 240 people) attempted to set themselves free. The city remained under Nazi occupation for another eight months, yet this small group achieved what many believed to be impossible. Confined within a closed ghetto, they were the only surviving Jews left in the town – hungry, exhausted, and subjected to constant humiliation, but sustained by an extraordinary determination to live. Seizing their only chance of survival, they spent a little over three months, beginning on May 14th, digging a tunnel from the labour camp barracks. According to Betty Cohen’s research, at least 133 inmates successfully escaped, making the Novogrudok tunnel the greatest Holocaust escape in terms of the number of survivors.

In July 2025, a historic agreement was signed to establish the Belarusian Museum of the Holocaust and Resistance in the historic town of Novogrudok. However, on 11 May 2026, it was discovered that three of the buildings that formed part of the labour camp complex, including one intended to house the new museum, were sold at auction. It has also emerged that the municipality in Novogrudok had not formally terminated the agreement signed the previous July, and that none of the signatory partners had been informed of the planned auction. This event will provide an opportunity to discuss these developments and their implications for the future of the project.

The event will include three speakers who will share their insights and then will be an open discussion, providing an opportunity to examine what is currently known about the proposed developments, while also addressing potential pitfalls, sensitivities, and concerns that may arise in the interpretation, preservation, and presentation of the site.

The discussion will also explore the wider challenges of Holocaust memorialisation in the former Soviet Union, where complex historical narratives, changing political landscapes, and the legacy of Soviet memory culture continue to shape how the past is understood and commemorated. Particular attention will be given to the responsibilities involved in representing Holocaust history with accuracy, integrity, and sensitivity.

Guest speakers Lady Esther Gilbert and Shifra Poupko will share their insights on the complexities and challenges of responsibly preserving and presenting Holocaust narratives in Belarus. Author Betty Cohen, daughter of tunnel escapee and partisan Fanya Dunetz Brodsky, will offer her reflections on the significance of the Novogrudok tunnel story and the current uncertainty regarding development of the site.

About the speakers:

Lady Gilbert, whose parents came from an area just to the south of the Belarusian border, has been involved in Holocaust commemoration and education for 40 years. She has created and published 3 volumes of Holocaust Memoir Digest, and helped Sir Martin Gilbert with his work. Since his death, she manages his literary estate and legacy. She has been a supporter of The Together Plan almost since its inception.

Shifra Poupko is a PhD candidate currently researching Holocaust Memorialisation in Eastern Europe, with a particular interest in the way survivors recounted the details of their communities in yizkor books after the war. She works at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, guiding at the museum and lectures on Jewish life before the war and resistance during the Holocaust. She lives in Israel with her family.

Betty (Batya) Brodsky Cohen is a doctor of clinical social work, a psychotherapist, a certified grief educator, a diplomate of logotherapy, as well as the daughter of one of the escapees of the Novogrudok tunnel escape. She is proud to be the author of Tunnel of Hope, the first book to be published on this remarkable and unprecedented escape. Working with original archival material and with the help of a genealogist over a period of 17 years, Dr. Cohen has identified 227 of the approximately 240 escapees and found that at least 133 survived the escape, more than the number of survivors from any other known Holocaust prisoner escape. Having located and interviewed living survivors as well as the descendants of these brave men, women, and even children all over the glove, she has written the personal stories of all identified escapees. Tunnel of Hope is about courage, persistence, and determination. Most of all, it is about hope and choosing life. Dr. Cohen is currently working on her next book: Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy and the Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust.