Holocaust in the Stolin district (Brest region)

The Stolin region was completely occupied by German troops in July 1941, and the occupation lasted three years - until July 1944 ^[3] .

The Stolin district became part of the territory administratively assigned to the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine of the Volyn-Podolia General District. The entire power in the area belonged to the Sonderführer, the German chief of the district, who was subordinate to the head of the district, the Gebitsissmissar Opitz. In all large villages of the district, district (volost) councils and police garrisons from Belarusian , Ukrainian and Polish collaborators were created ^[4] .

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 Gestapo arrived in the region ^[5] .

Simultaneously with the occupation, the Nazis and their henchmen began the mass extermination of Jews. “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 killed immediately, they were kept in ghettos up to complete extermination, using heavy and dirty forced labor, from which many prisoners died from excessive loads in the conditions of constant hunger and lack of medical care ^[6] .

The occupying authorities, on pain of death, forbade Jews to take off their yellow armor or six-pointed stars (identification marks on their outer clothing), leave the ghetto without special permission, change their place of residence and apartment inside the ghetto, walk on sidewalks, use public transport, be in parks and public places to attend schools ^[9] .

During the occupation, almost all the Jews of the Stolin region were killed, and the few who survived fought in the majority later in partisan units ^[10] .

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 these were the most able-bodied prisoners ^{[11] [12 ] ]} . For example, for this reason, on August 9, 1941, 53 Jews (men over 16 years old) buried in Borok tract ^{[10] [13] [14] [15]} were captured, beaten and shot by collaborators in the village of Rubel .

The most massacres of the Jews of the region took place in Stolin, David-Gorodok, the villages of Gorodnaya , Olshany ^[16] , Osovaya ^[17] , Olgomel ^[18] , Bolshoy Maleleshevo ^[18] , Korotichi ^[19] , Lutki ^[20] , Glinka ^{[21 ] [22]} , Big Eagles ^[23] , Lyadets ^[23] , Small Eagles ^{[24] [25]} , Ozdamichi ^[26] , Mochul ^[27] , Remel ^{[27] [28]} , Rubel ^{[29] [10]} , Rukhcha-1 ^[30] .

The Germans, implementing the Nazi program of extermination of Jews , created 3 ghettos in the Stolin region ^[5] .

In the Gorodnyansky ghetto (summer 1941 - July 1942), Germans and their accomplices killed more than 600 Jews.

In the David Gorodok ghetto (early 1942 - September 10, 1942), about 1000 Jews were tortured and killed by the Nazis and their accomplices.

About 11,000 Jews were killed in the Stolin ghetto (spring 1942 - September 11, 1942).

In the Stolin region, 5 people - Smortsevsky Francis, Vladislav Kiyovskiy and Maria, Stepan Mozol and Mozol - were awarded the honorary title “The Righteous Among the Nations ” from the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial Institute “ as a sign of the deepest gratitude for the help rendered to the Jewish people during the Second World War ”- for the salvation of Reed Henry (Rotter Gersh) and Eve in the village of Khotomel ^[31] .

Incomplete lists of murdered Jews in the region have been published ^[32] .

In 1986, a typical obelisk was installed in the Khinovsk tract at the site of the massacre of the Jews of David-Gorodok, and in 1996 it was updated ^[33] . In 2005, in the center of David-Gorodok, a memorial plaque was erected on the library building in memory of the Jews of the community who were destroyed in 1941–42, and in 2010, a memorial to the victims of the Jewish genocide was opened in the Khinovsk tract ^[34] .

In 1969, in the Stasino (Dolin) tract, 5 kilometers north of Stolin, an obelisk was erected at the site of the murders of 12,500 people, and currently there are two monuments. One of them is in memory of 8000 Jews of the Stolin Ghetto, the city of Stolin and the surrounding villages, who were killed in September 1942 ^{[35] [36] [37]} .

On September 23, 2001, a commemorative sign was erected on the mass grave of the murdered Jews from the village of Rubel (in the sand pit between the villages of Rubel and Khotomel ) with the names of 52 of the 53 victims ^[29] .

The monument was erected on the mass grave of Jews from the Gorodnyansky ghetto ^{[38] [39]} and on the grave of murdered Jews in Olshany .

• G.K. Kіsyalyoў, V.M. Очкіна i інш. (redcal.), Yu.S. Yurkevich (laying). “Memory. Stolynsky rayan. " - Mn. : BELTA, 2003 .-- 639 p. - ISBN 985-6302-49-8 . (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 .
• City - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• David-Gorodok - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Small Eagles - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Mankovichi - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Otverzhichi - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Olmany - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• Rubel - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;

• 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 .
• A.P. Krasoўski, U.A. Machulski, W.I. Mezenzaў i in. (redcal.), W.I. Mezenzaў (laying). “Memory. Vitebsk rayan. " - Mn. : “Mastatsky Literature”, 2004. - 771 p. - ISBN 985-02-0647-0 . (belor.)

• Monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Belarus