Entering Europe’s Last Dictatorship

Entering Europe’s Last Dictatorship

Welcome to Europe’s last dictatorship, Belarus. This country is a mystery to most people, and that’s exactly why I’m here. That thing is scary as hell. On this trip, I’ll be meeting a 90 year old Holocaust survivor exploring Chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster in human history. Holy smokes. And while I’m at it, I will see if I can find any living relatives out there. Oh, big hug. Finally, I’m going to be sharing an epic meal with a Belarusian grandma in the countryside. It’s time to discover what life looks like in a place the world has forgotten. Are you excited? Yes. Are, you excited? I’m very excited. I haven’t been here in 10 years. Minsk is not on most people’s travel list because it’s hard to get to. Most passport holders need a visa to come here. And the city is not really built for tourism. You won’t hear a word of English on the streets. And things in town are very strange, like the statues of Lenin. He is looking mighty, up there. Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus still retains close ties to Russia. Its dictator Lukashenko has held power for over 30 years and seemingly makes his own rules. From the outside, the country feels frozen in time and really quiet. I have discovered the first piece of trash on the floor right here. First one in the whole city. The metro feels like a Cold War museum. It is super packed in here and nobody’s smiling and everyone’s looking at me like I’m crazy. And even the KFC looks something like I’d see in Pyongyang. Such a contrast of American fast food and communist Soviet relics. But for me, this trip is personal because my family has roots in western Belarus, near a city called Brest. My first mission in Belarus is to see what I can learn about my heritage. And we begin at a site where brutalist architecture is hard to miss. We are now entering the fortress of Brest. It’s really interesting out, here in Belarus, you have people that wave Russian flags. I always wonder in my head, like, is it Russia? Is it a puppet state of Russia? Is it its own independent thing? All these questions. The last dictatorship in Europe. Always love seeing a tank. Soviet tanks. You know, you’re in Belarus when you see monuments like this, it’s called brutalist architecture. They’re like these blocky, cement, ugly buildings that have been made famous after World War II. No joke. When you walk by this guy, his eyes follow you. The scariest thing ever. This is the place where Nazis have entered the Soviet Union. This started World War II. This started the great, patriotic war. What they call The World War II started in 1939. But that’s when the war between the Nazi Germany and Soviet Union have started. We’re standing on the border actually of Poland. Right behind me is Poland. You can still see the bullets on the building here from World War II. It’s just crazy, man. We just heard like bombs go off. But I think they’re practicing for some celebration thing. Just another day at the office. I don’t know if I should be walking with them or not. There is a lot that I want to explore in Belarus. And I’ve already got plans to visit the border towns near Chernobyl. But before that, I need to trace the steps of my great grandparents. And that all begins with the Jewish history in Brest. Before World War II, nearly half of the city’s population was Jewish. Artur wants to show me a special project that brings thousands of Belarusian Jews back to life, which is really emotional for me as my ancestors came from this very place. We’re in a place where our organization, the Together Plan, is keeping the headstones from a former Jewish cemetery where we’re building a big memorial. The headstones were found around the city because when the Nazi came, they started to destroy the cemetery, the community and the people of Brest started to find them out. They started to surface out and they started to collect and bring it to the community. So you have hundreds in here. So here we have over 1200 headstones that could be read that we created a database from. And over 3,000 pieces of the broken headstones. I wonder if my great grandparents are here. There’s a very big chance this is the pieces that are still going to go back to the memorial. They’re going to be forming the walls of the memorial. It’s really crazy to think that my great grandparents gravestones could be right here. Or certainly if it’s not theirs, it’s their friends or family. It’s really sad to think about what happened to all these people, but it’s also really amazing that their memories are being preserved. Look at that. You can see the Hebrew writing. It’s still perfectly intact. Wild feeling to be in here. Between 1941 and 1943, about 800,000 Jews were murdered in Belarus during the Nazi occupation. Entire communities vanished, herded into ghettos, gunned down in forests, or deported to death camps. The Holocaust here was fast, brutal, and to this day, almost forgotten. But pieces of that history still remain, like the synagogue, which is potentially the place where my great grandparents worshiped. This all comes back to that quick DNA about being here and what kind of life my family had back in the day. It’s a large mezuzah, okay. This is called tefillin. It’s a Jewish tradition where leather straps are wrapped around the arm and head during morning prayer. Inside these small boxes are handwritten verses from the Torah. The practice is meant to connect the mind, heart, and body to God. And I’ve never felt more connected to my roots than in this very moment. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Haven’t done that in a while. Next, I’m going to take you to the museum in Brest, but where I found something really exciting about my great grandfather. Inside of the archives here, we were able to track down the exact birth certificate of my great grandfather, Hirsch Friedman. The English translation says National Historical Archive of Belarus. Hirsch Friedman, born at 9 o’clock in the morning to his lawful wife, Shila Bainim berkman, on, March 22, 1902. The name iser was given to the newborn in religious rite. I’m literally, like, shaking to know that. We were able to track down the birth certificate of my great grandfather here in the National Archives in Belarus. The actual birth certificate must stay in this building, but they were able to give me a photocopy of it, which I’m going to frame at home and keep forever. Frida, the last remaining Holocaust survivor in Belarus. It’s crazy to think that she witnessed the brutal history we’ve been learning about. I can Speak. But very bad. Wow. Amazing. She is adorable. I have. Wow. We’re heading to the ghetto where the Nazis relocated Frida during the pogroms, which were violent attacks on Jews that took place even before the Holocaust. We’re also visiting the old cemetery, a sacred place in Jewish tradition that maintains close connection to the community. There is this Rastreale. What were you thinking during all of this? How did you make it out alive? How.
How did you stay safe? How do you feel that you’re one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors here? I’m completely at a loss for words. I’m just staring into her eyes as she’s talking. I’ve never felt that feeling before. But talking to Frida is leaving me in tears. I mean, her story is so vivid and so strong, and she’s an amazing woman, and. And I can’t believe that she survived. She’s the last remaining Holocaust survivor here in Belarus, and there’s only just a handful left in the world, and the stories are gone forever. It’s just really, really heavy stuff. And it’s really special to be able to meet her. From what country? You. I am from America. America? Yes. Oh, very, very. But my babushka is Belarusian. Yeah. Yes. What does it mean for you to be Jewish today and carry on the tradition? If you could say one message to everybody in the world watching this video, what would you tell them? This is such an emotional story for me to tell, and I’ve never told it before. It’s really personal. I can’t even put it into words. And to be able to come here and connect with the culture and meet people like Frida who can share exactly what happened during World War II and the Holocaust. I mean, a lot of my family was killed in Auschwitz and in concentration camps. And if my great grandparents never left Lithuania and Belarus to go to the US Then I would probably be killed in the war, or I would just be hanging out here in Belarus with everyone else. It’s just so special to find out my identity, where I come from. And it means so much to me and I will always cherish it. And this is all possible thanks to my heritage, who is In 1986, Reactor 4 exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, releasing more radioactive material than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The fallout didn’t stop in Ukraine. It spread across Europe and heavily contaminated southern Belarus. Entire villages were evacuated and left behind. Nearly four decades later, nature has taken over. Wolves, wild horses, and bears roam through empty towns. It’s eerie. And my friends and I are going in. I literally feel like we’re entering a war zone right now. I got my passport here. We are entering the forbidden, zone that nobody comes to except us. Let’s go. Beyond this fence is a 30 kilometer border zone. From this place is approximately 35 kilometers to the Chernobyl power plant. So this was made 39 years ago after the disaster. When you see a sign like this, it means, be careful. We are now entering this crazy Soviet looking car to head down to the affected areas. Wow, this is bizarre. You’ve been studying, like, Chernobyl for a long time. You’ve been a tour guide? Oh, yes. For 12 years. I guarantee I’m the only American tourist here. This year. Drew, you are the first American inside the zone. Nice. It’s so weird to be here. Everything’s, like, empty and quiet. There’s some workers here, there’s some military, there’s some scientists, but it’s just like this feeling of emptiness in the air. Not what I expected. We are now visiting the administration building of the farm got a good little Lenin welcoming the beginning. Oh, wow, this is cool. Always love a good Lenin sighting. Goes on and on. You can just keep on exploring all these rooms. No adrenaline rush. Hits you like an abandoned building in a Soviet country. All of this just left as is gonna watch out for holes in the ground here. I mean there’s like sinkholes in this building. Man, these pictures are so creepy. Look at this guy. There’s all these like random documents on the floor. Like this has been here for 40 years. I don’t even know what this is for. But it’s cool looking. Being here totally feels like I’m stuck in the Soviet Union. Bizarre. There’s sinkholes up there. You can see all these like chairs, these signs. And they painted that giant nuclear radiation symbol on the wall. I’m gonna. This is way cooler than I was expecting. I didn’t know it was going to be like things left over, you know, Just imagine people living here. And then the explosion happened. People died or they had to just run away for safety. Is it true that Chernobyl affected like more of Belarus than Ukraine? The most quantity of radionuclides get to the territory of Belarus and we have 24 persons of pollution of our area. What’s crazy is when people think of Chernobyl, they only think of Ukraine. They don’t realize that like it, it really messed up Belarus. Chernobyl associated usually with only with Ukrainian territory. But Belarus was more affected by the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. If in Ukraine there is two 2,600 square kilometers of exclusion zone, in Belarus we have also 2,100 square kilometers of exclusion zone and approximately above 5,000 square kilometers of evacuation zones. Wow. Annie, what’s in your hand? We got the gag meter earlier and when we started was at 0.1. And as we approach those metal machines, it’s increasing. You went to the actual Chernobyl? I stepped back a few steps and it’s already dropping a bit lower. Yeah, I went to the actual Chernobyl and whenever. What was it out there? Do you remember whenever we climbed around the huge metal pipelines or techniques like this? It was also madly jumping. See 89. Right now check this out. Underground, we’re in a vet from 40 years ago that’s literally unchanged. When you come in here, you see all these old bottles that literally haven’t been moved. There’s still stuff in here. It says CCCP on it right there, which means Soviet Union. Like is this stuff still able to be used or is this. Like, how radioactive is this? Should we try it? This is just crazy. Like hundreds of medicine. If you ever wondered what a dentist looks like in the Soviet Union times, this is it. Peter tells me that the best view of Chernobyl is on top of the watchtower. But it’s really old and difficult to climb. I’m up for the test. Here we go. Step one. Oh. Got a long ways to go. Holy smokes. If you’re afraid of heights, this is not a place for you. I think the tower is moving left and right. Oh, my God. This is way scarier than it looks from the ground. Just gotta focus on one step at a time. Now it is directly, like, 90 degrees. Adrenaline rush is, like, crazy. You can see the actual building is right there. It’s like a white barn. Dude, what the. Why are there snakes everywhere? In Russian, it’s gajuka. This snake is very poisonable. Be careful near it. If it beat you, you can die. We’ve just entered a school here. You can see everything. Just kind of how it was. Look at this. Dude, I can’t believe I’m here right now exploring this. Look at these bags. Is that, like, drink? What is this? A bomb. You’re kidding. Dude, this is absolutely insane. What does this say? It’s like a celebration they have. This is the last remaining Lenin monument in this entire exclusion zone. Here he is. Looking cute. It’s hard to wrap my head around Chernobyl, Crumbling buildings, invisible radiation, and a silence that swallows everything. But now I’m heading into a different kind of stillness. The Belarusian countryside. Out here, life moves slowly. And I’m so excited to meet up with my local friend Veronica, who invited me to a traditional meal at her grandmother’s house. Oh, big hug. All over Eastern Europe, these grandmas, known locally as babushkas, are the backbones of entire villages. They are carriers of tradition, survival stories, and delicious homestyle recipes. I’m really excited. This is going to be the most Eastern European experience ever. This is her house. I can already hear her animals clucking in the front yard. I can’t wait to go inside and have a meal together and just hang out. Oh, my God. How many rabbits do you have in your house? Four. And, and four girls and one guy. What do you. What do you do with them? We eat them. You, have many animals in your house. Which one tastes the best in. Someone help. Oh, this one looks sad. When are you going to eat this one? When you come back. You have to hold it like that? Yeah, that’s how dinner go tonight? Welcome to Belarus. Oh, my God. This is so amazing. This is very special experience here to be in a small house in the village. Thank you to Veronica’s grandma. So how come your grandma has so much energy? She’s always like that. Yeah, yeah. She always likes us. Tyler, thank you so much for having us over. I came to Belarus because my great grandparents are actually from here. Babushka. She’s not impressed. She’s like, I don’t care. This is, like, fully authentic. Living here in the countryside, she got the onions hanging on the wall back here. She makes a use of every single inch in this house. It’s pretty cool. Is this the same house she lived in your whole life? No, she lived in Mogul. Her mother lived. Got it. Just exploring outside of her house. What’s over here? Rabbits. Rabbits. This is like a rabbit house. There’s rabbits in here for consumption. There is a bathroom. There’s a toilet over there. Nice. It’s like a full adventure out here. So here we plant potato, tomatoes, onions. She does everything by herself? Yeah. Really? Yeah, yeah. Do you like coming here? Yeah, sometimes. But it’s far away. That’s why we come here rarely. Do you feel, like, happy that your grandma is so amazing and active? Yeah, sure. Of course. It’s very fun. She’s very fun. She’s the best. She eats all these animals? Yeah. Does she kill them and butcher them? Yeah, she does it. Do you do it too? No, No, I haven’t done it. This is her bedroom. She’s got plants everywhere. Always making stuff. A big lion on the bed. This is a quintessential Eastern European experience. I just can’t get the smile off my face. Vodka. She’s ordering me to sit down. It is time to feast. She has so kindly made all this food for us. Thank you. It’s kind of, like, sour. You need to try everything. Okay, I will try everything. She wants to pour something for us to get the night going. I’m going to sleep all the way to Minsk. Aha. I understand. Cheers. Take this. Eat it after. Yeah. I’ve never seen a lemon and cheese as a chaser, but here they do it. It’s good with this. It completely removes the flavor. Yeah. What was it like to grow up in Soviet Union times? There was nothing to eat. They ate only cucumbers. Only this salad. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. I think that’s the only English word she’s ever spoken in her life. I don’t think I can have more than just this one, I don’t drink very much anymore. I need to eat more. Yeah.
That’s why I don’t understand before we meet. Meet first. Yeah. Because it’s too sweet. She’s aggressively. Okay, feed me, feed me. Do you think Belarus is the best country in the world? Yeah.
She does. Yes. Yeah. What about Russia? Russia. In Russia, there are dry. Like this. Dry. Yeah. I’m also drunk. I, like, never drink anymore. The diary is between. Oh, two shots. If you could say any message to people in the world watching this video, what would you tell them? She wishes to everyone peace and, of course, health. That’s the most important thing. And health to our president. It’s almost like her only duty right now is to make sure that we eat as much as we can and we leave her house as far as full as we can. Okay, okay, okay. I’m eating. I’m eating, I’m eating. You’re not allowed to take, like, 10 seconds off from eating. Cheers. Cheers. The only time she’s shy is when I ask her to speak an English word. She’s drinking for you. You must drink now. Cheers. This is my last sip. I’m not drinking any more than this. You drink it too. Yes. You also go. No, can’t finish it. I’m going to pass out the white chips. Cheers. Cheers. I can’t drink anymore. I’m done. That was my last shot. I will drink this if, if, if you can say my name without laughing. Drew. Drew. Okay, you lost the bet, and you have to fitness rip shots like that. I got to breathe. Oxygen first, oxygen in between. She doesn’t take a drink until she makes sure that I finishes the whole cup. Watch. In two seconds, she’s gonna say, come on, Drew, watch. This video is gonna go on YouTube and it’s gonna get millions of views. Just so there’s one grandpa that’s gonna love her back. This has been a very eye openening trip to Belarus, and I hope you have a new appreciation and understanding of this lonely nation. I came here searching for my great grandparents. And somehow, in this quiet, complicated country, I found them. Not just in the archives, but in the stories of Holocaust survivors in the stillness of abandoned towns and in the warm kitchen of a babushka. In many ways, this journey was about the past. But it was also about how its traces live on in the past present. Here, in Europe’s least understood country, I found a piece of myself. in the next video SA.

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I’m Drew Binsky, and I have been to every country in the world (197/197), and now my goal is to meet every President. I make documentaries about interesting people/cultures and epic adventures in faraway places. My ultimate goal is to inspire you to travel, because travel is the best education you can get. And our planet is beautiful!

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