Orsha ghetto

After the invasion of German troops on the territory of the USSR, some Jews managed to evacuate to the east, some Jewish men were at that time in the ranks of the Red Army , but 5-6 thousand Jews remained in the city.

Units of the 18th Panzer Division from the Guderian group and the 8th Army Corps broke into Orsha on July 16, 1941. The occupied city became part of one of the units of Belarus, which administratively belonged to the headquarters of the rear of Army Group Center ^[3] . The authorities in Orsha, starting July 26, 1941, were divided between the local commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur 11/354) and the field commandant’s office (Feldskommandantur 683), with the latter being fully headed ^[4] . Subsequently, the local commandant's office II / 354 was replaced by a similar one under the number 1/842.

The occupation of the city lasted 2 years and 11 months - from July 16 (14 ^[5] ) 1941 to June 27, 1944 ^{[6] [7]} .

The largest event held by the Nazis in the early days of the occupation was the registration of the population ^[2] . The Nazis were only interested in three questions: year of birth, nationality and profession. Having received full information about the Jews of the city, the invaders began implementing the destruction program, imposing a curfew from 18:00, a ban on leaving the registered place of residence, mandatory wearing of yellow hexagonal stripes on the back and sleeve, forcing hard physical work (cleaning the city of rubble, earthworks), nutrition restrictions ^[2] . Perpetrated lawlessness was carried out with only one purpose - to suppress the will to resist among potential victims ^[8] .

The formation in July 1941 of the Jewish Council - the Judenrat (even before the creation of the ghetto) - was part of the Nazi task of alienating Jews from the Belarusian population and began to formulate a "closed society." Kazhdan, who worked before the war as the chief accountant of Soyuzzagotkozh, Soyuzpushnin and the military secret ^{[2] [9], was} forced to become the chairman of the Judenrat. The registration of the population organized by the Nazis was carried out not to identify statistical data, but to help compile the execution lists.

The Nazis immediately imposed on the Jews a contribution of 250,000 rubles, of which 50,000 were collected in money, and the rest with valuables, including 2,000 silver and gold items ^[2] .

The Nazis divided the Jews of the city into three categories. The first group included people who could lead the resistance or actively participate in the anti-fascist struggle, and therefore subject to immediate liquidation - former business leaders, ideological workers, intellectuals, young and strong men. The Germans were very serious about the possibility of Jewish resistance , and therefore, first of all, Jewish men aged 15 to 50 years were killed in the ghetto or even before it was created - despite the economic inexpediency, as they were the most able-bodied prisoners ^[10] .

In relation to the bulk of the Jewish population of Orsha, the occupation authorities planned concentration in a separate place, and imprisonment in the ghetto completed the process of isolation of Jews.

In the Orsha ghetto, the Jewish population was driven out in late August - early September 1941 ^{[11] [12]} . Captain Paul Ike, following the order of the city’s field commandant, Colonel Baron von Asheberg, tried to find “a suitable area to make it easier to watch the ghetto and to fence it with barbed wire” ^[13] . Engels Street met the above requirements (earlier, until the end of the 1920s, Gorodnyanskaya). Fenced with barbed wire and guarded by the Orsha ghetto, it was the so-called “closed type” ghetto, and was located in the area from Narodnaya Street to the Polish cemetery, including the whole of Engels Street (on which no more than 25 houses survived) and the territory of the Slavinsky factory (“Red Wrestler” ) ^{[2] [12]} .

It is not possible to accurately determine the number of prisoners in the Orsha ghetto. Witness I. Gladkov calls the number approximately equal to 2000. In the act of the ChGK dated June 30, 1944, the number 2900 is indicated. The same Gladkov I. S. testified about 20-25 houses that served as housing in the ghetto, while on the plan carried out by Paul Hayk during the trial of Nazi criminals in 1946 in Minsk, there are 39, and one of them is a long hut. The accuracy of this plan was verified by the German historian Hannes Heer. Moreover, according to the statement of the prisoner of the Orsha ghetto Dolina (Rubina) I. B., in the two-room house where she was located, there were five families of 16 people, and due to lack of space, the Jews had to live in attics and in sheds. In the memoirs of Kaspersky A.F., it is indicated that the territory of the Krasny Borets factory was also part of the ghetto.

In the Orsha ghetto, living conditions were terrible. It was very crowded, about 2,000 people were accommodated in 25 houses that remained on Engels Street, everywhere there were plank beds, beds - one to one. Jews lived in attics, barns and outbuildings. They were not allowed into the ghetto, cordoned off with barbed wire and guarded ^{[2] [12]} .

Under the threat of execution they imposed a “indemnity” of 150,000 rubles, part of which, due to lack of money, the Nazis took with silver and gold jewelry, which they sent to Berlin, but even after paying the exactions and bullying of the Jews did not stop at all. German soldiers and Belarusian policemen burst into the ghetto in the evenings, engaged in robbery and violence ^{[8] [14] [12]} .

All able-bodied people worked from morning to evening on the railway for the most difficult and dirty jobs ^[15] , receiving 10-15 grams of flour and some potatoes per day (but even this scanty amount of food was not always given) ^{[12] [8] [14 ]} .

Due to the large crowding in the ghetto, an epidemic of typhoid spread, killing many lives. “The ghetto in Orsha was even worse than the Minsk one. Freezing old women swarmed among the corpses, girls in bruises, swollen from hunger asked: “When will they come for us?” Death seemed to them a deliverance ” ^[8] . The prisoners did not receive any medical care, and were in this position for about three months ^[12] .

To calm and maintain order, the Germans lied to the Jews that they would soon be sent to Palestine ^[14] .

The intentional killings of Jews have been documented since July 19, 1941, when Haim-Yankel Ronkin, who refused to go to work, was hanged on Bazarnaya Square. A plaque with the inscription "saboteur" was attached to his chest ^[8] .

At the end of August 1941, the Einsatzgruppe B unit arrived from Smolensk killed 43 Jews accused of “sabotage and communist agitation” ^[16] . The murder was carried out in a forest near the village of Ponizovye and in a quarry near Sovetskaya Street near the building of the modern youth sports school ^{[8] [14]} .

Almost at the same time that the ghetto appeared in Orsha, the Nazis held their first “action” (the Nazis called the massacres they organized as such a euphemism ). In September 1941, Einsatzkommand-8 (commander Bradfish) shot and killed approximately 800 Jews, who were divided into two groups and were not among the prisoners of the ghetto ^[17] . The place of the murder is in a quarry near Sovetskaya Street.

The clothes and clothes of the murdered prisoners came at the disposal of the burgomaster of the city, who distributed them to his employees ^[14] .

On the eve of the 20th of November 1941, prisoners of war dug a deep and wide trench in the Jewish cemetery, which was bordered by the ghetto. On November 26-27 (20 ^[12] ), all prisoners of the ghetto in Orsha were killed. On the eve of the execution, the field commandant's office transferred control of the ghetto to the local SD (head of the Obersturmführer Reshke). In addition to the SD, Belarusian policemen , field and local commandant's offices took part in the destruction. The direct executor of the massacre was the Einsatzkommand-8 unit ^[18] .

On November 25, 1941, the inhabitants of the ghetto were fraudulently notified of the impending evacuation to the rear areas. The next day, on the morning of November 26, the gendarmerie and the police surrounded the ghetto, the Jews were driven out of their houses, built into a convoy, and then they were taken in lots to previously dug holes and killed. Children were buried alive or broken by spines with a blow to the knee ^{[8] [11]} .

The murder of November 26-27, 1941, the Nazis and their allies carried out in two stages. One batch was sent to Orsha-Zapadnaya station, loaded into freight cars (2,000 people) and taken out for destruction (poisoning with contaminated water) ^[19] . Others were shot in a ravine between the Jewish and Polish cemeteries (now near the territory of the tool factory). The prisoners were driven out of the houses and built at the gates of the cemetery located on Engels Street. Dogs were searched at home. The population from adults to children, by order of the Germans, undressed itself, dumped things in stacks and collided into holes ^[12] . Others were put to the edge and shot in the back of the head. On Pushkin Street, police and Germans forced Belarusians to watch the killings. Temporarily saved the lives of 30 families of Jewish specialists, tailors, shoemakers, watchmakers and some others. In early October 1943, the cemetery was fenced for one night with a wooden fence three meters high. It was a former salting station with an area of ​​300 m², where there were 24 vats with a volume of 3.3 m³ each, which were loaded with the bodies of the dead, doused with flammable liquid and burned. Around was put guard. The ChGK Assistance Commission for the city of Orsha (act of September 20, 1944) found in the Jewish cemetery two pits 23 m long, 6 m wide and 3 m deep, as well as 24 vats of the former pickling point. In front of each pit there was an ashes with a diameter of 4-5 m. About 6,000 people were shot at the cemetery ^{[2] [20] [21]} .

According to the testimony of V.V. Klochkova, the occupiers needed the work of artisans, therefore they saved the lives of some 30 Jewish specialists and their families for some time.

There is disagreement in the documents regarding the number of days the Germans spent on the final murder of the ghetto Jews. The materials of the trial of the Nazi criminals, which took place in Minsk on January 15-29, 1946, indicate one day, but the ChGK act of June 30, 1944 refers to two days. The established number of dead Jews in Orsha is from 1750 to 6000: in the ChGK act of September 20, 1944, 6,000 Jews are indicated, in the ChGK act of September 9, 1944 - 4,800, in the ChGK act of June 30, 1944 - 2,900 and in the materials of the trial Nazi criminals, held in Minsk in 1946, speak of 1873 ^[12] and 1750 executed ^{[11] [20] [22] [23]} . The version of E. N. Krasheninnikov, published in an article on the urban underground in the Lenin Prizva newspaper dated October 21, 1966, that “punitive forces created two Jewish ghettos in Orsha” will explain these inconsistencies, but no documentary evidence has yet been found.

The estimated number of victims of the Jewish genocide in Orsha is from 5,000 to 6,000.

After the destruction of the Orsha ghetto, the Nazis began to hunt for children from mixed marriages. The caught were placed in the SD prison on May 1 street, and then shot ^[8] .

In early October 1943, in order to hide the traces of crimes, the bodies of the executed were burned for five days in the Jewish cemetery of Orsha. This was carried out by the Sonderkommando “1005” with the involvement of prisoners of war, who were then killed.

Of the Jews in Orsha, few survived. Avoiding the execution of Ilya Ryskin subsequently died fighting in the ranks of the Red Army. Eva Kholmyanskaya (Zorko), who was then able to join the partisan detachment, was saved. The Rubin family (mother and two children) was taken out of the ghetto by a resident of the village of Makarovka - Petr Lendarenko. Joseph Sasman hid Joseph Khasman in his house for nine months, after which Latyshevsky (unknown name) brought him to the location of Zaslonov’s partisan brigade ^[8] . They also fled from the occupied Orsha and joined the ranks of partisans Altmark M. B. (Chekist brigade, Kalyushnikov’s detachment), Solovyov’s sisters G.M. and Solovyov S.M. (detachment No. 35), sisters Farber M.S. ( Chekist brigade, detachment No. 20) and Farber R. S. (Chekist brigade, Kalyushnikov detachment), A. M. Feldman (detachment No. 120), D. Shilov (Chekist brigade, detachment No. 1 ), Yakovchuk M.M. (Detachment No. 35). The exact number of surviving Jews has not been established.

In Orsha, 4 people were awarded the honorary title “ Righteous Among the Nations ” from the Israeli Memorial Complex for the Holocaust and Heroism of the Jewish People “ Yad Vashem ” “ as a sign of the deepest gratitude for the assistance rendered to the Jewish people during the Second World War ”.

• Borschevskaya (Kitovich) Alexander, Kiselev Ivan and Anna. They saved Romanovskaya (Ionikh) Kuna and her daughter Oksana in Orsha ^[26] ;
• Sapiego Olga. She was saved by Hasman Michael in Orsha ^[27] .

After the liberation of Orsha, the evacuated and demobilized returned to the city, but the Jewish population did not reach the previous level. In 1970, there were 2742 Jews in Orsha, accounting for 2.5% of the total population ^[28] .

In 1968, an obelisk and a memorial plate were installed on the mass grave of the murdered Jews of Orsha near the tool factory.

Incomplete lists of Jews killed in Orsha have been published ^[29] .

• G.P. Pashkoў, T.G. Ignatieva i iнш. (redkal.). “Memory. Orsha. Arshansky Ryan. " Gіstoryka-dakumentalnaya chronika garadoў і raѐnaў Belarusі. At 2 books. Book 1 . - Mn. : "Belarusian encyclopedic", 1999. - ISBN 985-11-0156-7 . (belor.)
• G.P. Pashkoў, T.G. Ignatieva i iнш. (redkal.). “Memory. Orsha. Arshansky Ryan. " Gіstoryka-dakumentalnaya chronika garadoў і raѐnaў Belarusі. At 2 books. The book is 2nd . - Mn. : "Belarusian encyclopedic", 2000. - ISBN 985-11-0170-2 . (belor.)
• G. R. Vinnitsa. Holocaust in the occupied territory of Eastern Belarus in 1941-1945. - Mn., 2011, ISBN 978-985-6950-96-7
• Adamushko V.I., Biryukova O.V., Kryuk V.P., Kudryakova G.A. Directory of places of forced detention of civilians in the occupied territory of Belarus 1941-1944. - Mn. : National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, State Committee for Archives and Record Keeping of the Republic of Belarus, 2001. - 158 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 985-6372-19-4 .
• Yitzhak Arad . The extermination of the Jews of the USSR during the years of German occupation (1941-1944). Collection of documents and materials, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Publishing House , 1991, p. 16 ISBN 9653080105
• National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB). - fund 845, inventory 1, file 7, sheet 49; fund 4, inventory 29, file 111, sheet 43; fund 4, inventory 29, file 112, sheets 401-407, 419-421, 426, 428-431;
• Orsha - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia

• L. Smilovitsky , "The Holocaust of Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944.", Tel Aviv, 2000
• R. A. Chernoglazova, H. Heer. The tragedy of the Jews of Belarus in 1941-1944.: Collection of materials and documents. Mn .: publishing house E. S. Halperin, 1997, ISBN 985627902X

• Orsha ghetto (inaccessible link) , Arsha Gazeta, 04/17/2010
• D Volkov. Orsha Ghetto , “Narodnaya Volya”, 02/13/2013

• Ghetto in Orsha district