Belitsa | Grodno

/ Yahad team during the interview with Votslav D. © Victoria Bahr- Yahad-In Unum Votslav D. remembers that his father was requisitioned to bring the Jews to Dyatlovo © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum The former Jewish cemetery of Belitsa © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum The memorial to the 36 Jews murdered by Germans in Belitsa © Victoria Bahr- Yahad-In Unum

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Execution of Jewish men in Belitsa

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before :
Next to the church
Memorials :
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims :
36

Witness interview

Votslav D., born in 1930, remembered: " When the Jews disappeared, their belongings were burned and their houses were given to the local residents. Almost no Jew came back after the war.” (Witness N°735, interviewed in April 2014)

Historical note

Belitsa is a small village situated 25 km south of Lida. Before WW2, there were approximately 600 Jews living in Belitsa, making up the majority of the population. There was a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. The German forces occupied the village at the end of June 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

From the archives, little is known about the Belitsa Jews’ fate. Thanks to local testimonies recorded by Yahad, the fate of the Jews is much clearer. On July 23, 1941, Germans surrounded the village. The Jews were gathered in front of the church and were forcibly humiliated. They had to dance while being forced to work. Then, the Germans organized a selection, and shot 36 Jewish men, including Rabbi Shabtai, in a pit next to the church, dug by the Jews themselves. Two weeks later, the other Jews had to move to the Dyatlovo ghetto.

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