The Holocaust in the Braslav region - the systematic persecution and extermination of Jews in the Braslav region of the Vitebsk region by the occupation authorities of Nazi Germany and collaborators during 1941-1944 during the Second World War , as part of the “ Final Solution of the Jewish Question ” policy - an integral part of the Holocaust in Belarus and the Holocaust European Jewry .
From administrative order No. 1 of the commander of the rear of Army Group Center General von Schenkendorf of July 7, 1941 [1] [2] : " III. Decals for Jews and Jewesses |
Content
Jewish Genocide in the area
After the occupation by German troops, the Braslavsky district administratively began to belong to the territory of the Ostland Reichskommissariat of the general district of Belarus , and the western part of the Vidzovsky district to the general district of Lithuania [3] . All power in the region belonged to the Nazi military occupation administration, headed by the commandant of the Braslavsky commandant’s office, the building of which was located in Braslav on the street Liebknecht [3] .
To carry out the policy of genocide and carry out punitive operations immediately after the troops, the punitive units of the SS troops, Einsatzgruppe , Sonderkommando , secret field police (HFP), security and SD police, gendarmerie and the Gestapo arrived in the region [4] . Almost immediately, they separated the Jews from the rest of the inhabitants and killed them or drove them into the ghetto.
In all the large villages of the district, district councils and police garrisons from Belarusian , Lithuanian and Latvian collaborators, as well as from members of the Home Army, were created . Even before the fall of 1941, elders (salty) were appointed in all the settlements of the region [5] [6] .
From the first days of the occupation of the area, the Germans began to kill Jews. Similar "actions" (such as the euphemism by the Nazis called the massacres organized by them) were repeated many times in many places. In those settlements where Jews were not immediately killed, they were kept in ghetto conditions until they were completely destroyed [7] [8] .
During the occupation, the Jews of the Braslav region were almost completely killed. The scale of the killings was especially great in Braslav [9] , the villages of Zamosc [10] , Pros [10] , Dubino [11] , Kislovshchina [12] , Opsa [13] , Slobodka [14] , Yays [15] , Ikazn , Samuily , Uklyai, Perebrodye, Labetsk. Until the early 1990s, these facts were hushed up by official authorities [16] .
On February 22, 1943, in the Labetskoye village ( Opsovsky village council ), a detachment of police officers from the Opsovsky garrison killed all the inhabitants — 28 people who were in the village that day — for taking turns to hide an old Jewish man. After the war, a monument was erected on their mass grave [17] .
During the occupation in the summer of 1942, the Jews of the village of Yaysy ( Slobodkovsky village council ) - several dozen families - were taken to the Braslav ghetto. But 13 people, mostly men, policemen were killed on the spot. They were buried on the western outskirts of the village, and after the war a memorial sign was erected on this site. In the 1960s, the burial site was abandoned [18] .
Ghetto
In the district, the Germans, implementing the Hitler program of extermination of Jews , drove the remaining surviving Jews into 7 ghettos - in Braslaw, Vidzy, Drisvyaty, Druya, Dubino, Ikazni and Opsa. These ghettos were destroyed in 1942-1943.
In the ghetto, Jews were forbidden under pain of death: to appear without identification marks (rounded yellow armor or six-pointed stars sewn onto clothes in front and behind), without permission to leave the ghetto, communicate with non-Jewish people, change their place of residence inside the ghetto, use sidewalks, go into parks, cinemas and other public places. Each Jewish house should have the inscription "yude", it was forbidden to have cattle, poultry, wool, warm clothes [19] .
Until the annihilation of Jews from the ghetto, they were used in the most dirty and difficult forced labor, from which many died from exhaustion, starvation and disease in the complete absence of medical care.
Main articles:
- Ghetto in Braslaw (July 1941 - June 3, 1943) - about 4,500 Jews were killed.
- Ghetto in Vidza (summer 1941 - December 1942) - More than 2700 Jews died.
- Ghetto in Drysviat (summer 1941 - September 1942) - More than 100 Jews were killed.
- Ghetto in Drui (summer 1941 - June 12, 1942) - about 2,200 Jews were killed.
- Ghetto in Dubino (summer 1941 - winter 1941) - More than 100 Jews were killed.
- Ghetto in Ikazni (summer 1941 - summer 1942) - dozens of Jews died.
- Ghetto in Opsa (June 1942 - September 1942) - More than 300 Jews were killed.
Cases of Salvation and the Righteous Among the Nations
In the Braslav district, 32 people were awarded the honorary title “The Righteous Among the Nations ” from the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial Complex for the Holocaust and Heroism of the Jewish People “ as a token of deepest gratitude for the assistance provided to the Jewish people during the Second World War ."
- Narushko Ignatius and Genef. They saved Khlavna and Sonya Pintsov, and Tempelman Alexander in the village of Kozorezy .
- Shcherbinsky Donat, Jozef and Vladislav. They saved Fisher Enta, Gravets Leiba, Gita and Ida in the village of Kamenka .
- The Chesnowitz Emilia, Jadwiga, Joseph and Alphonse, and Matul Ignatius. They saved Maron Mendel and Masha, Fisher Khan and Tuvia, his brother Motel and Fisher Motel in the village of Kokhanishki .
- Cabbage Anastasia, Egor, Constantine and Solomei. They saved the Rukshins (family) in the village of Dovyaty .
- Lezhtin’s cobbler and Michael. They saved the Barkan family in the village of Shemelki (now does not exist).
- Butlers Vladimir and Maria, Mint (Butler) Valentina, Lambert (Butler) Claudius. They saved Rukshin Meer and his son Alexander in the village of Zamoshye .
- Vishnevsky Sophia and Felix, Kiselevsky Peter. They saved Finkelstein Meyer and Speer Raphael in the village of Balyui.
- Zvechkovsky Eduard, Nadezhda and Raisa. They saved Feigel Alexander in the village of Kolenkovschina.
- Denisovs Anna, Gavrila and Leonid, Zhorov Arsen and Martha, Devyatko (Zhorova) Olympics. They saved Samovar Yitzhak and other Jews in the village of Zapolevschina .
The Kandilevsky family from the village of Ilishki saved Sara Katz-Movshenzon with her husband and son. Jozef Sivitskaya and a local priest from the village of Urbany saved Rachel Gurevich with their daughters Hanoi and Reveka. Stanislav Shakel from the village of Kovshanki helped 17 Jews hide, including the Lubovich and Zusman families. Vasily Ivanov with his daughter from the village of Zacharevye hid Khan Band. Vasily Bresko helped save Slava Pintsova and her family in the village of Vyazavichi [20] .
Memory
The Braslav district was completely liberated from the Nazis on July 24, 1944 [21] .
In Braslav, in addition to Braslav and Opsa, monuments to executed Jews were erected in Slobodka [22] (in 2007) and Yaysy (with money from the Lazarus family fund ) and in Kozyany (but there is no mention of Jews on it, and it says “Soviet citizens” [7] ).
There is no monument at the site of the murder of Jews in Bogino ( Dalekovsky Village Council ) [7] .
There is a monument in Lesnichovka, on the outskirts of Braslav, near the pumping station, fifty meters from the Braslav-Daugavpils road with the inscription “At this point in 1942 a group of Soviet citizens-patriots was brutally tortured and shot by fascists” [22] .
There is no monument on the mass grave on Skuryatova Gorka, located at the exit from Braslav towards Polotsk. At this point in the mill were ten young Jews who fled from the ghetto. The Germans found them and shot them [22] .
Incomplete lists of Jews killed in the Braslav region have been published [23] .
Notes
- ↑ St. S. Godў, A. I. Zaleski i iнш. (redcal.); S.V. Shaiko. (stack.), "Memory. Sennensky Ryan. Gistoryka-dakumentalnaya chronika garadoў i raѐnaў Belarusі. - Minsk, "Paligrafafarmlenne", 2003 - p. 154; ISBN 985-6351-18-9 (Belarusian)
- ↑ National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB). - fund 4683, inventory 3, file 952, sheet 2
- ↑ 1 2 “Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 284.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 283.
- ↑ A. Schulman. Traveling along Jewish Street Archived on December 10, 2015.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 285-286.
- ↑ 1 2 3 A. Schulman. In the land of blue lakes , Mishpoha magazine No. 23
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 381.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 391-396.
- ↑ 1 2 “Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 396.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 396-397.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 397-398.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 398.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 398-399.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 399.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 423.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 302-303.
- ↑ In the Braslav district, a previously unknown burial of Holocaust victims was found (Unavailable link) . Date of treatment January 4, 2014. Archived on October 6, 2013.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 382.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 385-386.
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 403.
- ↑ 1 2 3 A. Schulman. In the land of blue lakes
- ↑ "Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. ", 1998 , p. 391-399, 423.
Sources
- K.V. Velichkovich, P.R. Kazloўski i insh. (redcal.); K. S. Shydloўski. (way.). “Memory. Braslaўsky rayan. " Gistoryka-documentary chronicle of garadoў and raѐnaў Belarus .. - Mn. : "Paligrafafarmlenne", 1998. - 710 p. - ISBN 985-6351-03-0 . (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."
- Braslav - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
- Vidzy - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
- Druya - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
- Opsa - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
Literature
- Smilovitsky L. L. The catastrophe of the Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944 . - Tel Aviv: Matthew Black Library, 2000 .-- 432 p. - ISBN 965-7094-24-0 .
- 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 .
See also
- Monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Belarus