Ghetto in Ilya (Minsk region)

Before the war, 586 Jews lived in the town of Ilya ^[1] . The village was occupied by German troops for three years - from July 3, 1941 to July 3, 1944 ^{[1] [2]} . After the occupation, the Germans, realizing the Nazi program of extermination of Jews , organized a ghetto in Ilya in the area of ​​Chkalov Street, driving the Jews from nearby villages there ^{[3] [4]} . The head of the ghetto, the Germans appointed Abram Motke ^[1] . The ghetto was surrounded by a barbed wire fence ^[5] .

For reasons still unclear, the description of the destruction of the ghetto in Ilya, recreated from the stories of witnesses from local residents, is very different from the information recorded in the act of the commission for assistance to the ChGK in the Ilya District on March 19, 1945 and from the testimony of the Latvian police officer, participant in the destruction of the ghetto, them during the trial in 1971 ^[5] . The discrepancies in both versions are so great that, according to historians, we are apparently talking about different cases of mass killings ^[1] .

According to the testimony of witnesses, residents of Ilya, in the evening of March 16, 1942, a detachment of punishers headed by the Gestapo arrived in the town. The Germans chose 8 (10 according to other accounts) of the most beautiful Jewish girls, raped them, and shot them with the rest of the Jews the next morning. The names of some of them have survived: Sarah and Khaya Greenblatt, Rysya Kopelevich, Basya Rier, Sarah Sosman, Khaya Bruyda. The next day, March 17 (still in winter ^[3] ) 1942, the Germans, along with the policemen , drove the Jews to the square, which was heavily guarded, by 15:00. Then the doomed people were taken to a large barn, a former unfinished vegetable storehouse, and locked in it. 2-3 people were taken from the shed, taken to a pre-dug hole and killed. Towards evening, the empty barn and pit were doused with gasoline and set on fire. Those Jews who jumped into the pit themselves, not expecting shots, according to witnesses, started screaming terribly, and the punishers, smiling at the same time, threw hand grenades there. After that, the Germans and policemen returned to the ghetto, thoroughly searched it and found 60 (64 according to another evidence) hiding people. They were taken to a still burning pit, shot and thrown down. During this “action” (the Nazis called the massacres they organized as such a euphemism ), more than 700 (520 ^[6] ) Jews ^{[4] [3]} were killed in two days. After the executions they were looted ^[1] .

According to the act of the ChGK Assistance Commission, the destruction of the ghetto occurred in May 1942. A detachment of 200 Gestapo soldiers from Vileika arrived in Ilya, with them - 30 Belarusian policemen . Punishers dug a large hole in Sovetskaya Street. The Jews were ordered to undress and stand on the edge of the pit, after which they were shot at them point-blank with a machine gun and machine guns. When the pit filled to the top, gas was poured there, an incendiary bomb was thrown, and the bodies of the dead smoldered for three days on fire. During this massacre, Germans and collaborators shot and burned 745 Jews, including 150 children under the age of 10. The names of some of the organizers and perpetrators of this murder have survived: officers Korf and Max, captain Strasbourg, Chief Wachmeister Fritzel, chief of the gendarmes of the village Ilya podofitser Bernard Vyrving, police chief Nikolai Skabey, police Nikolay Davydovich, Nikolay Sokolovsky, Mechislav Krotovich, Petan Selyavka Kononok, Mikhail Kozhura and Fedor Golubovich ^[1] .

The Latvian collaborator , a participant in the destruction of the ghetto, during the trial in 1971 gave the following evidence. In the first half of June 1942, their police unit was raised on alarm and, together with members of the SD and gendarmerie, under the direction of Grave, with full armament drove into the village of Ilya in three trucks and two cars. There were approximately 25 people in each truck. In Ilya Cars were met by Germans and policemen - only 30-50 people. On the orders of the Germans, Latvian and other policemen cordoned off the ghetto, from which they began to lead the Jews out and drive them home to a field on the outskirts of the town. When all the Jews were taken out, the Germans searched the ghetto for valuable things and hidden prisoners. Jews taken out of the outskirts of the village were shot for large stable for 2-3 hours. After the murder, the Germans and policemen returned to Vileyka and arranged a party for all participants in the execution. In total, 300-400 Jews were killed that day in Ilya ^[5] .

In July 1942, with the participation of Belarusian and Latvian police, Wehrmacht soldiers and foresters, about 1000 of the last Jews were killed in Ilya outside the city. Their bodies were doused with gasoline and burned ^[7] . In total, in the summer (August ^[3] ) of 1942, approximately 1,500 Jews were killed in Ilya ^{[4] [3]} .

Gennady, a resident of Ilya Safonov, was awarded the honorary title "The Righteous Among the Nations " from the Israeli memorial institute Yad Vashem " as a sign of the deepest gratitude for the assistance provided to the Jewish people during the Second World War ." He saved in Ilya Vogelman Simha, Solomyansky Fayvl, Katz Brown, Zakharov (Minkov) Anna and the family Yokhelman ^{[8] [9]} ;

In the village, an underground organization was operating against the invaders, whose members were Jews (one of the underground members in Ilya was Nikolai Kiselev , who saved a group of Jews from the ghetto in Dolginovo ) ^[10] .

In Ilya, a monument was erected on the mass grave of Soviet soldiers and partisans and on the grave of the victims of fascism, on which there is no mention of Jews killed in the village during the Holocaust ^{[1] [11]} .

Incomplete lists of the murdered Jews of Elijah ^{[12] [13] have been} published.

Books and articles

• G.K. Kisyalyo, Y. A. Ignatovich, M. Ts. Karotki i insh. (redkal.), V.A. Kolasava (laying). “Memory. Vileiski Rayon. ” - Mn. : BELTA, 2003 .-- 704 p. - ISBN 985-6302-56-0 . (belor.)
• 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 .
• L. Smilovitsky. The ghetto of Belarus - examples of genocide (from the book "The Holocaust of Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944.")
• Ilya - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;

Archival Sources

• National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB):
  • fund 4, inventory 29, file 112, sheets 457–458;
  • fund 861, inventory 1, file 10, sheets 26-30, 34;
• Zonal State Archive in Molodechno. - fund R-226, inventory 1, files 56, 57, 58, 63;

additional literature

• L. Smilovitsky , "The Holocaust of Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944.", Tel Aviv, 2000
• Yitzhak Arad . The extermination of the Jews of the USSR during the years of German occupation (1941-1944). Compilation of documents and materials, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Publishing House , 1991, ISBN 9653080105
• Chernoglazova R. A., Kheer H. The tragedy of the Jews of Belarus in 1941-1944: a collection of materials and documents. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and more .. - Mn. : E. S. Halperin, 1997 .-- 398 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 985627902X .

• Ghetto in Vileika district