Murder Story of Vitebsk Jews at the Vitebsk Brick Factory

According to eyewitness accounts, as early as late summer-early fall 1941, groups of Jews of various ages and both sexes were taken to the sand quarries of the brick factory in the floodplain of the Vitsba River (at present, this site is occupied by the Park of the 40th Anniversary of the Komsomol), where they were shot. The perpetrators seem to have been members of Einsatzkommando 9 of Einsatzgruppe B. Following the annihilation of the bulk of Vitebsk Jewry in early October 1941, arrested Jewish fugitives – who had apparently managed to evade the massacre by hiding, but were later caught – would be held at the prison at the headquarters of the German occupying authorities on the campus of the Veterinary Institute (the present-day State Academy of Veterinary Medicine) southwest of the brick factory. From there, they would be taken to the quarries at the brick factory itself, and shot by members of the Secret Field Police.