Memorial on Pervomayskaya Street
YVA, Photo Collection, 6632/1
Pervomayskaya Street in Dzerzhinsk Related Communities
Dzerzhinsk Related Murder Sites
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Murder Story of Dzerzhinsk Jews on Pervomayskaya Street in Dzerzhinsk
Murder Site
Pervomayskaya (Dzerzhinsk)
Belorussia (USSR)
On October 20 (or 21), 1941 the Germans forced the workers of the local kolkhoz, as well as Soviet prisoners of war (about 80-120 people), to dig a pit. The pit – 25 meters long, three meters wide, and three meters deep – was on Pervomayskaya Street, opposite the Protestant Church near the former Polish school. The Germans surrounded the whole area. When the preparations were complete, the Jews were taken to the pit in groups of 15-20 on the pretext that they were being relocated.
The Jews were forced to lie down in the pit and were then shot to death by Lithuanians. The killing lasted until evening. According to different sources, the number of victims was between 1,920 and 2,500 (according to one source, in the course of a single day 1,000 Jews and local Communists were shot). Along with the Lithuanians, local policemen participated in the murder. After the shooting, the men who had dug the pit covered it with earth.
Related Resources
ChGK Soviet Reports
The ChGK report from Dzerzhinsk
We investigated the site in Dzerzhinsk opposite the Calvinist [Protestant] Church, where Germans carried out the mass murder of the Jewish population. During the course of the investigation we found a grave – a pit 32 meters long and 4 meters wide. The collected evidence indicates that the Germans carried out the shooting at the end of October 1941. All those buried at the site were shot on the same day, within a two to two-and-a-half hour time period. The number of the people shot has been calculated at the rate of five bodies per square meter; other evidence supports this. The witness Dmitriy Shibut reported that he personally [along with others] dug the three-meter-deep pit in which the victims were buried. Thus, the number of people killed was 1,920 ...
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-87-5 copy YVA M.33 / JM/20009
Pervomayskaya (Dzerzhinsk)
street
Murder Site
Belorussia (USSR)
53.684;27.141
Videos
Photos
Emma Zanger was born in Dzerzhinsk and lived there during the war years. (Interview in Russian). Part I
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 29487 copy YVA O.93 / 29487
Emma Zanger was born in Dzerzhinsk and lived there during the war years. (Interview in Russian) . Part II
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 29487 copy YVA O.93 / 29487