Murder Story of Brasław Jews at the Brasław Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery, which was the site of all three Nazi massacres in Brasław, lay at the northern edge of the town (nowadays, it is located at the end of Dzerzhinsky Street). Anticipating the impending massacre and liquidation of the Brasław Ghetto, many of its Jewish inmates built shelters and bunkers in its territory. On June 2, 1942, the German Gendarmerie sent 100 young Jews, mostly girls, to the village of Slobodka 10 kilometers northeast of Brasław, to clean up the military barracks there. On the next day, June 3, the German gendarmes, assisted by local collaborators, cordoned off the Brasław Ghetto, rounded up about 2,000 Jews, and led them to the local narrow-gauge railway station, which is mentioned in some Soviet documents as the murder site of the Jews. Numerous Jews tried to hide or escape from the ghetto; many were killed on the spot. Upon reaching the station, the Jews were ordered to surrender all their money and valuables. On the next day, June 4, the Nazis began to take the Jews from the station, in batches of 50, to the shooting site near the Jewish cemetery, and shoot them there. When the victims approached the ditches, which had been dug beforehand, they would be ordered to undress. The young people who had been taken to Slobodka for forced labor were brought to the Brasław Jewish cemetery when their work was done, and were shot there, as well. When the killing was over, the Gendarmerie and police began to search for the Jews who had managed to hide. Any Jew they found would be taken to the same site and killed. Thus, the mass-murder operation lasted for three days. Two days after the major massacre, the German authorities declared an "amnesty" for those Brasław Jews whom they had failed to locate. Using this ruse, they were able to lure many Jews out of their hiding places. 2-3 days later, these Jews, too, were shot at the same site. The "Opsa Ghetto" was liquidated on March 19, 1943. The total number of Jews killed in the three massacres at the former Jewish cemetery in Brasław is estimated at 4,000-5,000.