Murder story of Miadziol Nowy Jews in the Mkhi Forest

In August 1941, the bodies of two non-Jews, presumably Poles, were discovered near the village of Rabun, east of Wilejka. These were former inmates of the NKVD (Soviet political police) prison in Wilejka, who had been executed by the NKVD officers in June 1941, as the latter were fleeing from the advancing German army. The victims were identified as former residents of Miadzioł, and their relatives allegedly asked the Germans to punish the Jews, who were assigned the ultimate blame for this killing. In September, the Nazis arrested twenty-two (or twenty-one) Jews, including alleged communist activists and prominent members of the community, such as the town rabbi. The arrestees were held in the Gendarmerie prison. The gendarmes later "released" them from the prison and sicced the dogs on them, with some of the Jews being severely mauled. The police then arrested another fifteen Jews (according to a different account, a total of about fifty Jews were arrested), tortured them, and shot them all near the Mkhi Forest, which lies west of Miadzioł, near the Minsk-Naroch road.