• »Zmievskaya Balka« Memorial
The »Zmievskaya Ravine« Memorial was dedicated by the city administration of Rostov-on-Don on May 9, 1975. It commemorates at least 15.000 Jews who were murdered at this site. Between August 11 and August 13 alone, members of SS Sonderkommando 10a (SS special commando) murdered over 2.000 Jews in the ravine.
Image: Rostov-on-Don, 2010, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Vadim Anohin
Rostov-on-Don, 2010, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Vadim Anohin

Image: Rostov-on-Don, August 1997, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Nauchno-prosvetitel'skiy Tsentr »Holocaust«, Sergey Shpagin
Rostov-on-Don, August 1997, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Nauchno-prosvetitel'skiy Tsentr »Holocaust«, Sergey Shpagin
German troops occupied Rostov-on-Don on November 21, 1941, and remained there for eight days. The Red Army subsequently retook the city and held its position until July 1942. During this time, most of the Jewish residents of Rostov-on-Don could flee. On July 23, 1941, the German Wehrmacht marched into the city once again. Together with the Wehrmacht came SS Sonderkommando 10a (SK, special commando), led by Heinrich Seetzen. By August 2, 1942, SK 10a and the Geheime Feldpolizei (secret military police) arrested around 700 people and executed about 400 of them under the pretext of being »partisans and party functionaries«. Following this, the SK began registering the 2,000 Jews remaining in Rostov-on-Don, above all the elderly and the frail, women and children. These had to gather at collecting points on August 11, 1942. From there, the SK brought them to a ravine called Zmievskaya Balka, close to the Zmievka settlement. Here, Seetzen and his men shot the Jews of Rostov. The shootings lasted three days. The SS additionally brought »gas vans« into operation on August 12 and 13. Until February 1943 the SS murdered several thousands of Jews in further mass shootings in the »Zmievskaya Balka«.
Image: Rostov-on-Don, 2010, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Vadim Anohin
Rostov-on-Don, 2010, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Vadim Anohin

Image: Rostov-on-Don, August 1997, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Nauchno-prosvetitel'skiy Tsentr »Holocaust«, Sergey Shpagin
Rostov-on-Don, August 1997, View of the memorial in the »Zmievskaya Balka«, Nauchno-prosvetitel'skiy Tsentr »Holocaust«, Sergey Shpagin
The members of SS Sonderkommando 10a (SS special commando) shot at least 2,000 Jews from Rostov-on-Don between August 11 and August 13, 1942. Until February, 1943, the SS murdered between 15.000 and 18.000 Jews in the »Zmievskaya Balka«. The number of victims is possibly even higher.
Image: Rostov-on-Don, 2010, Memorial ceremony at the monument, Yuri Dombrovsky
Rostov-on-Don, 2010, Memorial ceremony at the monument, Yuri Dombrovsky
The »Zmievskaya Balka« Memorial was designed by Nik Avedikov and erected on initiative of municipal representatives of the Communist Party and the city administration of Rostov-on-Don. It was dedicated on May 9, 1975, on the 30th anniversary of the Soviet Union's »victory in the Great Patriotic War«.
The memorial in Rostov has great symbolic significance since the massacre in the »Zmievskaya Balka« is considered to be the largest single mass murder of Jews on the territory of the Russian Federation. In 2011, a controversy around the memorial aroused international attention when the memorial plaque on the memorial was replaced with a new one by the Rostov municipal administration. Arguing that it could not be proved that all the victims were Jews, the new inscription failed to mention Jews as victims. Three years later, a compromise was found. Since then, the inscription reads: »Here, in Zmievskaya Balka, Nazi occupants exterminated more than 27 thousand peaceful citizens of Rostov-on-Don and Soviet prisoners of war in August 1942. Among the murdered were members of various nationalities. Zmievskaya Balka is the largest site of mass extermination of Jews by the fascist intruders during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Image: Rostov-on-Don, 2009, View of the memorial, Vadim Anohin
Rostov-on-Don, 2009, View of the memorial, Vadim Anohin

Image: Rostov-on-Don, 2011, The memorial plaque that has been replaced, Yuri Dombrovsky
Rostov-on-Don, 2011, The memorial plaque that has been replaced, Yuri Dombrovsky
Name
Мемориальный комплекс »Змиевская балка«
Address
»Holocaust«, Zmievskaya Balka
344015 Rostow-na-Donu
Phone
+7 903 402 08 95
Web
http://holocaust.su/
E-Mail
ravanij@mail.ru
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.
There is a small exhibition at the memorial site which is open on Thursdays and on Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.