Ghetto in Smolyany (March 9, 1942 - April 5, 1942) - Jewish ghetto , a place of forced resettlement of the Jews of the village Smolyany ( Smolyany ) of the Orsha district of the Vitebsk region and nearby settlements in the process of persecuting the Jews during the occupation of the territory of Belarus by the Nazi German forces during the Second period world war .
| Ghetto in Smalany | |
|---|---|
 Monument on a mass grave on the site of the execution of Jews in Smolyany | |
| Type of | open |
| Location | Smolyany Orshansky district Vitebsk region |
| Period of existence | March 9, 1942 - April 5, 1942 |
| Death toll | about 600 |
Content
The occupation of Smolyan and the creation of the ghetto
In 1926, 950 Jews lived in the town of Smolyany , constituting 52.8% of the total population of the village. The pre-war number of Jews is not established [1] .
After the occupation of Smolyan by German troops , the local commandant’s office (the head of Kregel) exercised the functions of power. She introduced restrictive measures for the population of the town - a curfew from 17.00 and a ban on leaving Smolyana. Jews were obliged to wear a black bandage with a six-pointed yellow patch. Men from the age of 16 were used in forced labor. The ghetto was probably headed by a Polish Jewish refugee named Laneman (Läneman), who was responsible for sending him to hard physical work imposed by the occupiers, and Bromberg was appointed the translator. The two named were the Judenrat of the place. Old men were not forced to work [2] [3] .
On March 9, 1942, the Germans, implementing the Nazi program of extermination of the Jews , drove the Smolyan Jews into a ghetto, located on Shklovskaya Street in about 30 houses. After learning about the relocation to the ghetto, a small part of the Jews managed to leave the Smolyany [2] [3] [4] .
Conditions in the ghetto
Smolyan ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire, but was not guarded, representing the so-called "open type" of the ghetto. The number of prisoners was 700-840 people. Here, besides the residents of Smolyan, there were also Jews who had fled from Minsk , Borisov , Orsha and Dubrovno . Prisoners could leave the ghetto, exchanging clothes for food. Due to large crowding, hunger and cold, people died, mortality became widespread [2] [2] .
Jews were used in the most difficult and dirty forced labor [5] .
The opportunity to leave and thus escape survived, but the majority of Jews remained in place. There was nowhere to run. The frosty and snowy winter restrained the initiative, and to a greater degree the absence of partisan detachments that appeared only by the summer of 1942. Also, boys and girls for the love of their elderly parents refused to leave, preferring to stay with them and support them until the very end. Only men and young men not bound by family ties left the ghetto, saving their lives [2] .
The local population, on pain of death, was forbidden not only to hide, but even to help the Jews [2] .
Ghetto destruction
On the eve of the planned destruction of the ghetto, April 4, 1942, the Germans blew up the frozen ground, preparing a place for the execution. On the morning of April 5, 1942, cars and trucks with 15 German soldiers, 4 officers, and also Belarusian policemen entered the ghetto. Jews were expelled into the street, those who resisted and tried to scream were beaten. People were shot two kilometers from Smolyan, on the Smolyany-Repukhovo road, in the forest that bore the name Gubino or Gubinskaya Dacha. All were stripped to their underwear, and then shot in batches [2] [4] . During this “action” (as a euphemism, the Nazis called the massacres organized by them), from 560 to 610 Jews were killed [6] (according to other sources - 800 [4] [7] ) - mostly old men, women and children. Only Kagan Nahum, who joined the partisan detachment, was saved.
| From the history of the installation of the monument to the Jews in Smalany: [4] [8] : "In 1947, L.I. Mirotin visited Smolyany, Kokhanovsky district, Vitebsk region. The mass execution of Jews (April 1942) was abandoned. From the mass grave, where more than 800 prisoners rested, there was a small mound, on which pasture for livestock. Myrotin lost a leg at the front, all his relatives — the father, mother, sister, brother, wife, and child — died in the ghetto. , citing the fact that their initiative would be wrong interpreted. Mirotin turned to the village council, where he was refused under the pretext of lack of funds, although the houses and property of the executed Jews after the liberation of the village were sold to the village council. The chairman of the Smolyan village council was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR, Tikhonovich, ... summoned the remaining local Jews and invited them to collect money for a monument of 300-500 rubles. After that, Mirotin decided that the last one who is able to help him is Ilya Erenburg ... In a letter dated June 22, 1948 to the writer, it was said that the monument in Smolyany was a matter of life and death for him: "Perhaps then my soul will calm down." Only after the intervention of Ehrenburg, in September 1948, the secretary of the Vitebsk Regional Committee of the CP (B) B, V. Kudryayev, personally ordered to enclose the grave in Smolyany with a wooden fence and bring it into “proper order”. |
The death of the Jews in Smolyany prompted the resistance of the ghetto prisoners in the Oboltsy town of the Tolochinsky district. Upon learning of the execution on the same day, the Jews escaped at night, thanks to which some of the prisoners escaped [2] .
Memory
The burial is located two kilometers east of Smolyan, to the left of the village of Rossky Selets . In 1948, the mass grave was surrounded by a wooden fence, now it is enclosed with a metal fence, and the grave mound is lined with stones [4] [7] [9] . In 2008, a new monument to the victims of the genocide of Jews was erected at the place of execution.
Notes
- ↑ G. Vinnitsa , Osipovichi // Holocaust on the territory of the USSR: encyclopedia / Ch. ed. I. A. Altman . - M., 2009. - pp. 700-701.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 G. Vinnitsa , Word of Memory, Orsha, Orsha Printing House, 1997, p. 51
- ↑ 1 2 G. R. Vinnitsa. The Holocaust in the occupied territory of Eastern Belarus in 1941-1945. - Minsk, 2011, pp. 305—307 ISBN 978-985-6950-96-7
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 E. Shchekina. The death of the Jews of the town Smolyany Archival copy of March 25, 2016 on the Wayback Machine
- ↑ “Pamyat. Orsha. Arshansky raion ", Book 1-st ., 1999 , p. 307.
- State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). - Foundation 7021. - Op. 84. - D. 10. - L. 23, 321.
- ↑ 1 2 Smolyany place. Holocaust. Community history
- ↑ L. Smilovitsky , “The Catastrophe of the Jews in Belorussia, 1941—1944,” Tel Aviv, 2000, pp. 278—287
- ↑ Zbor pomnіkau gіstoryi i culture Belarus - Minsk, 1985. - p. 114.
Sources
- G. P. Pashko, T. G. Ignatseva i inn. (redkal.). “Pamyat. Orsha. Arshansky rayon ". Giistoryka-dukumentalnaya chronika garadoў і works on Belarus. At 2 books. Kniga 1st - Mn. : "Belarusian entsiklapedya", 1999. - ISBN 985-11-0156-7 . (white)
Further reading
- L. Smilovitsky , “The Catastrophe of the Jews in Belarus, 1941—1944”, Tel Aviv, 2000
- Itzhak Arad . The destruction of the Jews of the USSR during the German occupation (1941-1944). Collection of documents and materials, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem , 1991, ISBN 9653080105
- Chernoglazova R.A., Heer H. The Tragedy of the Jews of Belarus in 1941-1944: a collection of materials and documents. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and additional .. - Mn. : E. S. Halperin, 1997. - 398 p. - 1000 copies - ISBN 985627902X .
See also
- Ghetto in Orsha district