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Murder Story of Chashniki Jews in Zarechnaya Sloboda

Murder Site
Zarechnaya Sloboda
Belorussia (USSR)
Memorial ceremony at Zarechnaya Sloboda murder site, 1981
Memorial ceremony at Zarechnaya Sloboda murder site, 1981
YVA, Photo Collection, 4310/1
The murder site is situated near the place Zarechnaya Sloboda, one kilometer northeast of Chashniki, on the eastern side of the Ulla River.

In the morning of February 14 (according to another source, February 12), 1942, some 100 young people were sent out of Chashniki to clear snow from nearby roads – thus distancing the most active sector of the Jewish population from the site of the future massacre. At about 1 or 2 pm, a detachment of Einsatzkommando 9 entered Chashniki on horse-driven sledges from the direction of Beshenkovichi. That morning, the Belarussian police had begun to assemble the Jews in the building of a former Catholic church, which had been turned into a “House of Culture” during the Soviet period. According to eyewitnesses, many Jews refused to go to the church and, towards dusk, the area resembled a battlefield: there was shooting and the police stormed some houses. A number of Jews tried to flee and were killed on the run, some of them quite far from the town center. A group of policemen intercepted the young people returning to the town after clearing the snow, and escorted them to the church.

About 1,000 Jews spent the night in the church, closely guarded by the Belarussian police. On the morning of February 15, the mayor sent Belarussian men to deepen the pits near the village of Trilesino, from which sand had been taken before the war. At around 10 am, the police, under the command of M. Pakhomov, drove the Jews from the church to Trilesino. On arrival, the Germans and the police saw that the Belarussian men had failed to make the pits deep enough because of the heavy frost. They made the Jews sit down on the snow, thirty meters from the pits, and fetched some dynamite to deepen the pits. When the preparations were finished (about two hours later), the mass shooting began. The killers, both Germans and local police, took several people (probably entire families) in turn, undressed them, and stood them at the edge of the pit where they were shot with machine guns. Before the victims were killed, the GFP [Geheimfeldpolizei - Secret Filed Police] unit responsible for rounding up the Jews (together with two volunteers from a local Luftwaffe unit) searched them for any valuables. The murder operation took the whole day. Over the following days, the police combed the town and its vicinity and found some Jews in hiding.

After the murder operation, the victims’ belongings were collected, sorted and, under the auspices of the SD, handed over to the mayor to be sold to the Belarussian population.

The murderers themselves estimated the number of those killed at 1,180. The list (probably incomplete), compiled by the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission in 1944, indicates 700 Jewish victims.

The Secret Field Police (GFP) was an organization subordinate to the Wehrmacht military police, whose main objective was to fight subversion and spying in the army, as the Gestapo did in the civilian population. Most of the GFP men were recruited from the Gestapo. After the outbreak of the war, the field units of the GFP were mainly involved with fighting the partisans, underground and other enemy bodies, that is with wide-reaching war crimes against the Soviet population, among them Jews. On the eastern front, there was close cooperation between GFP units and Einsatzgruppen divisions.

Related Resources
Ivan Borkevich, who was born in 1927 in Chashniki and lived there during the war years, testified:
So, I came to Chashniki at five o’clock in the evening, when the Jews were already driven together. ... First the Jews went by themselves, later they were driven by force. There were shootings, a lot of noise, screams. This went on until midnight; nobody [in the town] went to bed. ... They stayed in the House of Culture the whole night. The church, I believe, had six doors. All the doors were boarded up, only one entrance was not, and two or three [local] policemen with rifles stood against it. ... At around 10 o’clock in the morning they drove the Jews to the shooting site. One guy told me, “They are being driven!” There were fifteen, maybe twenty Germans and policemen, more policemen than Germans. ... Their armament: two machine-guns, automatic rifles, rifles. Later, only three men did the shooting, the rest stood guard. ... The guys and I – around ten people – followed the column, about 200 meters behind. They were driven not along the main road, but along a secondary path. ... The column was long; the policemen were situated every several meters on the side, the Germans in front. The guys and I came to a cowshed on a hilltop, from where we could see everything. The Germans brought them and settled them down – but the pit was not yet ready. ... The Jews were already sitting. The Germans brought dynamite cartridges from Chashniki (rather quickly, it took less than an hour), and began to blast the ground until they reached the soft [unfrozen] soil – three hours later. The Jews did not try to run away. They were forced to undress; they were beaten with rifle butts and sticks. Four people alone performed this work. The Jews sat thirty meters from the pit. They were taken in groups, two to four people in each, led to the pit and shot.
YVA O.3 / 4698
Semion Shapiro, who was born in 1925 in Chashniki and lived there during the war years, testified:
We were clearing snow. The punitive [squad] came from the direction of Beshenkovichi – they were in horse-driven sledges, five men in each sledge – 25 men in total, all of them with sculls [emblems on their hats]. As soon as I saw them, I felt a stitch in my heart. They arrived at 1 pm, and at 2 pm we finished our allotted work and went home to eat. Chereiskii came running out to meet us, tearing his hair and screaming: “Yidn, kinder, antloyft ver vi kent! Me’harget, me’shist! [Jews, children, run away wherever you can! They are killing, they are shooting!]" They had encircled Chashniki; there was nowhere to run. I grabbed my younger brother, but riflemen – either Germans or local policemen – were positioned every 50 meters. The riflemen shot without missing, killing on the spot. Many were killed instantly. I had to look for a shelter in Chashniki. Fifty meters from the Polish [Catholic] church – the House of Culture – there was a house under construction. ... There was a frame and rafters, with planks piled on the frame. We climbed onto the planks – we were nimble then – and lay there, in felt boots [valenki], but without a coat and in two pairs of trousers ... from 2 pm, then through the night, and the entire day on Sunday. The following night we crept out – it was 20 degrees [centigrade below zero] – we could hear everything.
YVA O.3 / 4692
Zarechnaya Sloboda
Murder Site
Belorussia (USSR)
54.856;29.162
Memorial ceremony at Zarechnaya Sloboda murder site, 1981
Memorial ceremony at Zarechnaya Sloboda murder site, 1981
YVA, Photo Collection, 4310/1
Zarechnaya Sloboda murder site
Zarechnaya Sloboda murder site
Mishpoha journal (Vitebsk), Copy YVA 14616602