• »Mourning Mother« Monument
The monument »Mourning Mother« at Rudnya in Central Russia was unveiled on October 21, 1965. It commemorates the victims of mass shootings conducted by the SS in 1941/42.
Image: Rudnya, undated, »Mourning Mother« Monument, Nautshno-prosvetitel'skiy Centr »Holocaust«, Moscow
Rudnya, undated, »Mourning Mother« Monument, Nautshno-prosvetitel'skiy Centr »Holocaust«, Moscow
The German Wehrmacht occupied Rudnya on July 14, 1941. Before the war eighty percent of the population of Rudnya were Jews. The occupying forces quickly established a ghetto for the Jewish population, crowding around 1,200 people into it. In December 1941, the SS-Einsatzgruppe B (SS mobile killing squad) reported the shooting of 835 Jews. In April 1942, Einsatzkommando 8 performed further mass shootings in which several hundred Jews perished.
Image: Rudnya, undated, »Mourning Mother« Monument, Nautshno-prosvetitel'skiy Centr »Holocaust«, Moscow
Rudnya, undated, »Mourning Mother« Monument, Nautshno-prosvetitel'skiy Centr »Holocaust«, Moscow
Between October 1941 and April 1942, members of the SS-Einsatzkommando 8 murdered between 835 and over 1,000 Jews from Rudnya near Smolensk.
Image: Rudnya, undated, Monument inscription without a reference to Jews, Nautshno-prosvetitel'skiy Centr »Holocaust«, Moscow
Rudnya, undated, Monument inscription without a reference to Jews, Nautshno-prosvetitel'skiy Centr »Holocaust«, Moscow

The monument »Mourning Mother« was unveiled on October 21, 1965. The sculpture was created by Lev Kerbel (1917–2003) who had also designed the monument in the Seelow Heights or the Karl Marx monument in Chemnitz. The inscription names the few Jewish victims known by name, without explicitly mentioning their Jewish faith. The memorial plaque reads: »Here, the remains of more than 1,200 people - women, children and elderly - were buried, after they were shot by the German fascist occupiers in anti-tank trenches outside of Rudnya in the area of Smolensk on October 20, 1941. Some of those who were not fatally injured were buried alive.«
Name
Pamjatnik »Skorbjaschtschaja mat'«
Phone
+7 081 414 187 7
E-Mail
holofond@mtu-net.ru
Open
The monument is accessible at all times.