Chavusy (Chausy) | Mogilev

/ / Rural ambiance. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Abandoned Jewish cemetery. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Aleksandr Sh., born in 1934. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Nina G., born in 1928, a child from the mix marriage who survived the war. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The building of former German Kommendatur. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The killing place of Jews, POWs and communists in Chavusy, near the former Kommandantur. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Yahad’s research team with the witness near the killing site. ©Aleksey Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Chavusy

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1943
Number of victims:
Around 675

Witness interview

Anna C.: " I saw the grave after the shooting, I’d seen the column beforehand as well. There were a lot of buttons and bullets around the pit. The grave was 15 metres long and 3 metres wide. It was completely full." (Witness N°591, interviewed in Chausy, on April 22, 2012)

Historical note

Chausy is a town situated 157km north of Gomel. It used to be a substantial Jewish shtetl, dating from the 17th century. On the eve of the war, there were around 2.000 Jews living in the town and nearby villages. The Jews represented 18% of the total population. This included some Jewish refugees who had fled from occupied Poland and western Belarus. The town was occupied by the Germans in July. 1941. Some of the Jews managed to flee before the German arrival.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Under the German occupation, all the Jews were registered, marked and subjected to force labor. In August 1941, the first two Aktions were conducted, during which circa. 50 Jews were murdered. In all, around 675 Jews were murdered in Chausy. All the executions were carried out by Sonderkommando 7b, a sub unit of Einsatzgruppe B. The Yahad team discovered the execution site near the former Kommandantur, where Jews, POWs and communists were murdered. The majority of the Jews from Chavusy were killed in the nearly village of Dranukha. (To learn more about the executions in Dranukha please check the village’s profile)

Nearby villages

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