Batsevichi | Mogilev

Executions of Jews in Batsevichi

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before :: Garden
Memorials :: No
Period of occupation:: 1941-1944
Number of victims :: About 100-150

Witness interview

Yekaterina Y., born in 1928, remembered: “I saw the shooting from the window of my house. About 40 people who were being accused of having connection with partisans were gathered and escorted by policemen. Once on the site, they were shot on the ground. There was no pit. The Germans didn’t let us to burn the corpses during two weeks. I remember the blood dripping into the river“. (Testimony n°700, interviewed on July 27, 2013 in Batsevichi)

Historical note

Batsevichi is located about 100 km southwest of Mogilev and 35 km north of Bobruisk. According to the witness, many Jews lived in the center of the village back then. The majority of them were merchants and artisans. There was a synagogue, but no Jewish cemetery. Supposedly, on the eve of the war, there were some 150 Jews living in Batsevichi. The Germans arrived in the region at the end of July, 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Within the first months of the occupation, the Jews could continue to live normally in their houses. Only in September 1941, they were confined to the ghetto, which was liquidated a few months later, in December 1941. According to the witness, who lived in Ustya back then (now a suburb of Batsevichi), one Jewish family who were natives of Ustya, were murdered in the garden not far from their home. Their bodies were reburied at the cemetery. In February 1942, 47 local villagers were murdered as reprisals against the partisan movement.

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