Monument to Jewish victims, Litowka
YVA, Photo Collection, 6674/2
Litówka Related Communities
Nowogrodek Related Murder Sites
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Murder Story of Nowogródek Jews in Litówka
Murder Site
Litowka
Poland
Following a number of killing operations in surrounding towns, including Korelicze, Lubcz, and Wsielub, all the surviving Jews were brought to the Nowogrodek ghetto, significantly increasing the number of inmates. On August 7 or 8, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded, and most of its residents, 2,500-5,000 Jews, as well as some laborers who worked in the German army’s stables, were ordered to report to the square. There they were made to lie stretched out on the ground for six hours. They were then taken in groups to the village of Litówka by truck, where they were executed next to a ravine. The murder operation was commanded by Johann Foerster of the Wilejka security police and it was carried out by the gendarme staff of the Nowogrodek region, together with Lithuanian and Latvian units, and probably with the partial cooperation of the Baranowicze SiPO.
An additional murder operation took place in the area on February 4, 1943 (according to other sources, on March 25), during which the 510-520 remaining Jews from the ghetto were killed at the same site.
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Resources.tabstitle.written Testimonies
Resources.tabstitle.chgk Soviet Reports
George Lubow testified:
On August 6, 1942, while I was at work at the tannery, we received word that the ghetto was being surrounded by a heavy detachment of the SS and their Estonian and Lithuanian collaborators. In accordance with the prearranged plan, my mother left the ghetto and headed towards her hiding place.
The summer night was short. In the morning, all the Jews in the ghetto were ordered out of their homes to the yard in front of the gate. As soon as they were assembled, they were told not to raise their heads or they would be shot. Trucks were waiting in front of the ghetto gate. One by one, the Jews were loaded onto the trucks and taken to a nearby ravine in the village of Litovke [Litówka]. Once they got off the trucks, they were ordered to walk in single file to the edge of a ravine, where they were machine-gunned by the SS, and fell row upon row into the ravine. The shooting went on for an entire day. Again, thousands of Jews from the ghetto were killed. August 7, 1942 will be remembered by the survivors as the second mass killing of the Jews of Nowogródek.
Lubow, George. Escape : against all odds; a survivor's story . New York : iUniverse, 2004, pp. 35-36.
Litowka
Murder Site
Poland
53.592;25.828
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Esya Shor was born in 1925 in Nowogrodek, and lived there during the war years.
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 41035 copy YVA O.93 / 41035
Lisa Reibel was born in 1930 in Nowogrodek, and lived there during the war years.
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 38299 copy YVA O.93 / 38299