In Klimavichy (Russian: Klimovichy) several memorials commemorate the murdered Jews of the city.

Klimavichy, 1941/1943, Street scene during the German occupation, public domain


Klimavichy, 2018, New memorial at the former mass shooting site, Avner

Klimavichy, located in eastern Belarus, was first mentioned by name in 1581. Jews lived there from the 18th century onwards. Shortly before the Second World War, Klimavichy had about 9,600 inhabitants, of whom 1,600 were Jews. The German Wehrmacht occupied the city on August 10, 1941. Some Jews had previously managed to escape. Immediately after the German invasion, the Jews were forced to wear identifying badges, establish a Jewish Council to obey German orders and conduct forced labour. In mid-October 1941 all Jews were forced to move to a ghetto. On November 6, 1941 the younger Jews were sent to work near a distillery. All other inhabitants of the ghetto were rounded up by German and Belarusian policemen and taken to a former runway 500 meters southwest of Klimavichy. Members of the 221st Security Division of the Wehrmacht and Einsatzkommando (sub-group of Einsatzgruppe) 9 of Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) B were responsible for the »Aktion«. First they imprisoned the Jews in abandoned garages. Then they led them in groups to previously dug pits and shot them there. Some Jews who were sent to work in the morning came to know about the mass shooting and fled. Many were later captured again and shot. Skilled workers were spared at first. In 1943, however, they were also murdered in the Vydrenka Forest near the town. In April 1943 members of the SS imprisoned all children from so-called mixed marriages and their mothers. The Germans were supported by Belarusian policemen. On April 12, 1943 the SS murdered all the children on the prison grounds and buried their bodies at the »Melovaya Gora«, where women with certain illnesses and »gypsies« were murdered as well.

Klimavichy, 1941/1943, Street scene during the German occupation, public domain


Klimavichy, 2018, New memorial at the former mass shooting site, Avner

At the end of August 1941, thirteen members of the Jewish Council were unable to pay the money demanded by the Germans. They were shot in the Jewish cemetery. On November 6, 1941 German units murdered about 700 Jews. After that, only about 80 Jews were still alive in the city. The Jewish skilled workers and their families lived in a house near the prison. All other Jews who had been spared in the mass shooting were imprisoned in another building with Jews from neighbouring villages. By the end of the month, they were all shot at the »Melovaya Gora«. On December 19, 1941 Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) B reported that it had murdered 786 Jewish women and men in Klimavichy and in Cherykaw (Russian: Cherykov), about 35 kilometres away. After the war, the Extraordinary Soviet Investigative Commission estimated the number of Jews murdered in Klimavichy at 900.

Klimavichy, undated, Memorial near the hospital with removed Star of David, Yad Vashem


Klimavichy, undated, Jewish cemetery, 6tv.by

The Red Army liberated Klimavichy on September 28, 1943 as one of the first cities in Belarus. Mainly thanks to the help of non-Jewish inhabitants, 15 Jews had survived the war in Klimavichy. At the end of the 1950s, surviving relatives of the Jewish victims erected their first monument. It is located near the hospital in the southeast of the city and remembers in Yiddish and Russian the victims of the mass shooting of November 6, 1941. In 1967 the engraved Star of David was removed by order of the Soviet authorities. The Jewish symbol was only reattached at the end of the 1980s. All Jews who were murdered by the Germans at the »Melovaya Gora« were transferred to the Jewish cemetery after the war. A memorial was also erected there. On September 6, 2018, the city inaugurated a new memorial. It is located in Biryusova Street, near the site of the mass shooting of November 1941. The memorial was financed by a British initiative for the erection of Holocaust monuments in Belarus. The Belarusian, English and Hebrew inscriptions remember 900 Jews murdered in the city in 1941. The cemetery regularly hosts commemorative events.

Klimavichy, undated, Soviet memorial, Yad Vashem


Klimavichy, 2018, Memorial at the Jewish cemetery, Avner

Name

Pamjat ubityh ewrejew goroda Klimowitschi

Open

The memorials are accessible at all times.