Murder Story of Lubcza na Niemnem Jews in Worobjewicze Małe

In May 1942, approximately 600 of the younger and healthier Jewish inmates of the Lubcz Ghetto (which also housed Jews resettled in 1942 from the towns of Delatycze, Niehniewicze, Rubieżewicze, Iwieniec, and Naliboki, as well as from nearby villages) were transferred to the labor camp at Worobjewicze Małe, to work in road construction. In August 1942, the Germans declared that the construction of the Nowogródek-Lubcz highway was completed, and liquidated the camp. The Jewish workers were ordered to dig pits near the village of Worobjewicze Małe, and, on August 8, they were shot in groups. The victims – many of whom were only wounded, rather than killed – were then covered with soil. One group of Jewish workers was locked inside a barn, which was then doused with gasoline and set alight. Those who tried to escape were murdered. 635 Jews were killed in the vicinity of Worobjewicze on that day. The perpetrators were both Germans and Belorussian policemen, acting on the orders of Oberleutnant Martin von Knoblauch, the commandant of Lubcz.