Holocaust in Korelichi district

The Korelichi region was completely occupied by German troops in July 1941, and the occupation lasted more than three years - until July 1944 ^[4] . The Nazis included Korelichi district in the territory administratively assigned to the Ostland Reichskommissariat of the General District of Belarus ^[5] .

All power in the area belonged to the Sonderfuhrer , the German chief of the district, who was subordinate to the head of the district, the Gebitsomissar . In all large villages of the district, district (volost) councils and police garrisons from Belarusian , Polish and Ukrainian collaborators were created ^[6] .

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 ^[7] . “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 ghetto conditions until they were completely exterminated, 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 ^[8] .

During the occupation, almost all Jews of the Korelichi region were killed, and the few who survived fought in the majority later in partisan units ^[3] .

The most massacres of Jews occurred in the villages of Mir and Korelichi , in the villages of Turets (450 people ^{[9] [10]} ), Krinichnoe ^[11] , Yeremichi ^[12] .

In addition to the Einsatzgruppes , the Wehrmacht forces always took an active part in the murder of Jews. In the Korelichi region, the murder of Jews in the village of Mir (November 9, 1941) and in the village of Turets was carried out by soldiers of the 11th Lithuanian infantry battalion of the 727th infantry regiment ^{[13] [14] [15]} .

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 ^{[16] [17]} .

The Germans, implementing the Nazi program of extermination of Jews , created 2 ghettos in the district.

• From the ghetto of the village of Korelichi (July 1941 - June 2, 1942), more than 700 Jews who were still alive by June 1942 were taken out and killed in the Novogrudok ghetto .
• In the ghetto of the village of Mir (September 1941 - August 13, 1942), 2,900 Jews were killed.

In the Korelichi district, 2 people - Sophia and Ignat Yermolovichi - were awarded the honorary title “ Righteous Among the Nations ” from the Israeli memorial institute “ Yad Vashem ” “ as a sign of the deepest gratitude for the assistance rendered to the Jewish people during the Second World War ”. In the village of Mir, they saved Zakheim (Kopelovich) Tsilya - they hid her at home, and then they were transferred to the partisan detachment of the Belsky brothers ^{[18] [19] [20]} .

The ChKG Commission found that the main culprits of the murders in the World were: the commandants of the district police Serafimovich Semen and Pankevich; Gendarmerie translator and executioner Andrei Bakunovich; assistant to the commandant of the district police and commandant of the Mirsky SD Mazurok Ivan; burgomaster of the district council Belyanovich; employees of the SD Slinko Joseph and Demidovich Anton; policemen Kulikovsky Adolf, Miskevich Ibrahim, Barashko Vladimir, Stoma Ivan, Levkovich Vitaliy, Levkovich Peter, Hinevich Peter, Poluyan, Gursky Alexander, Lichko Ivan Konstantinovich, Skoda Pyotr Petrovich, Popko Boris Antonovich, Pechenko Vasily Viktorovich Sakovich Fotov , Stotko Leonid Iosifovich, Rudik Mikhail Pavlovich, Bochkovsky Vladimir Yuzefovich, Avdeychik Lev and Beresnevich Joseph ^{[21] [10]} .

In the town of Turets, the murders of Jews were organized by: commandant of the police Galetsky (Galitsky) Peter; policemen: Yuris Dmitry Ivanovich, Bunchuk Ivan Iosifovich, Panko Nikolay Arsentyevich, Mashko Vasily Martynovich, Bareiko Nikolay Andreevich, Rachok Vasily Mitrofanovich. Mass executions were carried out in the village of Zhukhovichi : police commandant Matsuk Mikhail and policemen Bakhrushin Mikhail, Levkovich Zatya, Martinevsky Ivan, Martinevsky Nikolai Iosifovich, Kondzera Ivan Vasilievich ^{[22] [10]} .

Incomplete lists of victims of the Jewish genocide in the Korelichi district have been published ^[23] .

Three monuments were erected in the Korelichi district on the mass graves of Holocaust victims - all of them are in the World ^{[11] [24] [25]} .

Also, in memory of the dead Jews of the World, the Jewish National Fund, together with the Jerusalem community, planted a grove north of the Jerusalem region of Pisgat Zeev and called it the “Forest of Peace” ^[24] .

• VC. Kunashka, V.F. Kushner, A.M. Наумовіч i інш. . “Memory. Karelitsky rayan. " - Mn. : “Urajay”, 2000. - 645 p. - ISBN 985-04-0347-0 . (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 .
• World - an article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia

• 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 .

• Monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Belarus