Ghetto in Luninets

In 1931, 2,232 ( 8,072 ^[1] ) Jews lived in the city of Luninets - 22.3% of the population ^[2] . As of September 1, 1939, 4,153 Jews lived in the city ( 1,743 men, 1,470 women and 940 children) ^{[3] [4]} .

The city was occupied by German troops on July 10, 1941, and the occupation lasted 3 years - until July 10, 1944 ^{[2] [5] [6]} .

In the very first days of the occupation, the killing of Jews began. Rabbi Flaxman was killed - the Germans tied him to a horse, which dragged him at a gallop along the road until he died ^[7] . The same death killed several more Jews ^[8] .

The Nazis ordered the Jews to organize a Judenrat ^[2] .

The Germans were very serious about the possibility of Jewish resistance , and therefore, in the first place, Jewish men, aged 15 to 50, were killed in the ghetto or even before it was created, despite the economic inexpediency, as these were the most able-bodied prisoners ^{[9] [10 ] ]} . For this reason, on August 10 (July ^[11] ) 1941, the Nazis, on the pretext of registration and job placement, collected 1,312 Lunin-Jewish men aged 18 to 60 and shot them in the tract Mogul (Mochula) ^{[12] [1 ] ] [2]} .

Before the “action” (the Nazis called the massacres organized by them) the Jews themselves were forced to dig graves, then 10 people were put face down in front of each pit and killed with shots in the back of the head. The survivors were forced to throw off the dead and lay down in their place themselves. Resistance was immediately killed ^[13] .

The Jewish cemetery, located in the area of ​​the old airport (the end of today's Chapaev street), was completely destroyed by the Nazis ^[14] .

As of January 20, 1942, there were 1,816 Jews (114 men, 1,189 women and 613 children) in the city ^{[3] [4]} .

In March 1942, the Germans, implementing the Hitler program for the extermination of Jews , organized a ghetto in Luninets, which occupied the territory of Okruzhnaya Street, driving there 3,000 people from Luninets and nearby villages ^{[2] [17]} .

The ghetto was destroyed during August-September 1942 ^[17] . On September 4, 1942, the Pinsk SD detachment arrived in the city to destroy the ghetto, led by the head of the SD Pinsk service, Raps. These were the punishers who had already killed the Jews of Lahwa. In the cordon of the ghetto and the place of the murder were the same soldiers and policemen as on the day before in Lahva - the 10th company of the 3rd police battalion; 9th platoon of the 3rd company of the 15th police battalion; platoon of the 69th battalion ( Todt organization ); detachment of the 2nd company of the 306th police battalion and cavalry squadron ^[18] .

On this day, September 4, 1942, at about 4 pm the last prisoners of the Luninets ghetto were killed - 2,932 people, among whom there were 1,429 women and 1,397 children ^{[12] [1] [2] [11] [19] [20] [ 21]} .

A pre-prepared shooting ditch 50 meters long, 4 meters wide and 3 meters deep was located in the Borovshchina tract between the Luninets-Pinsk railway line and the abandoned Luninets-Baranovichi railway line at a distance of about 1.5 kilometers from the ghetto ^[22] .

Doomed people in front of the pit were forced to strip naked and put separately male and female clothes. From this place they have already seen what is happening in the pit. Then the Jews in groups of 10 people were taken to the pit. Small children were forbidden to take in their arms, and forced to lead next to them. Out of fear, people screamed terribly. In the pit, Jews — most of whom were women with children — were ordered to lie down and lay the child next to them so that his head was open. A member of the Pinsk SD detachment by the name of Pech and his henchmen Balbach and Patik took turns driving and firing doomed people with machine guns with shots in the back of the head - just like the day before the destruction of the ghetto in Lahva. According to several punishers who participated in this execution, who were caught and tried in Frankfurt in 1971-1973, " what was happening at the pit was so terrible that it is impossible to describe in words ." ^[22] .

Before the execution, 100 artisans were selected from the convoy and sent back. They were also soon shot - in mid-October 1942 ^[18] .

One of the Luninets rabbis - Lipa Todrosovich Ioselevich - constantly called on the Jews of the ghetto to resist. He managed to escape, and after long wanderings he joined the partisans. Later, at his insistence, the partisans were able to free many ghetto prisoners. First of all, he sought to save other people, and did not have time to get his wife and daughter out of the ghetto - they were killed by the Nazis. For "courage, intelligence and nobility" the command of the detachment appointed Lipa Ioselevich the platoon commander ^[23] .

Incomplete lists of victims of the Jewish genocide in Luninets have been published ^[24] .

In 1967, an obelisk was erected on the mass grave of the victims of the Jewish genocide in Luninets ^[2] . Two more monuments were erected in Israel - in the city of Holon and in Jerusalem ^[25] .

• E.N. Gneўka, A.L. Petrashkevich i insh. (redcal.), T.V. Kanapatskaya (laying). “Memory. Lunetsky Ryan. " - Mn. : “Belarus”, 1995. - 720 p. - ISBN 985-01-0029-X . (belor.)
• Luninets - an article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia ;
• 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 .
• National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB). - fund 845, inventory 1, file 13, sheets 12-13; Case 57, sheet 37;
• Zonal State Archives in Pinsk, - fund 118, inventory 1, file 5, 9;
• 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.)

• 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 .

• Ghetto in the Luninets district