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Murder Story of Gomel Jews in Svyatitsa
Murder Site
Svyatitsa Area
Belorussia (USSR)
In October 1941 Germans forced 18 Jews out of their houses. The Jews were taken about a kilometer out of Gomel, 500 meters from the village of Svyatitsa, and were forced to dig a large pit. They were then shot dead by the Germans and their bodies thrown into the pit. One Jew was left alive to bury the dead. Then he was forced to dig a grave for himself, after which he too was murdered.
Related Resources
ChGK Soviet Reports
Antonina Shpakova, who lived in Gomel village during the war years, testified:
I lived in the area of the Gomel rural council and saw German hangmen shooting Soviet civilians. In 1941 they took 18 Jews from Gomel village to the village of Svyatitsa, where they [Jews] were shot dead…
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-92-210 copy YVA M.33 / JM/20021
The ChGK report from Gomel village
... During the German occupation German executioners mercilessly murdered civilians from Gomel village, Vetrino County, Polotsk District. In October 1941 Germans shot the innocent citizens of the Jewish nationality from Gomel village and buried them 500 meters from Svyatitsa....
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-92-210 copy YVA M.33 / JM/20021
Vera Bobkova, who was born in 1905 and lived in Gomel village during the war years, testified:
I know that a German unit – I do not know which one – came from Vetrino to Gomel in the late autumn of 1941. They [the Germans] forced 18 Jews out of their apartments…. All 18 Jews were taken by the German occupiers one and a half kilometers from Gomel, where the Jews had to dig a large pit. They were then shot dead and were thrown into the pit. Zalman Kurman was not shot, he was left alive to bury the dead … then he was forced to dig a hole for himself. He was shot dead and buried by the Germans....
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-92-210 copy YVA M.33 / JM/20021
Svyatitsa Area
Murder Site
Belorussia (USSR)
55.316;28.783