Krugloye (Krugloe) | Mogilev

/ The Jewish cemetery in Krugloye. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Prior to the war, the majority of residents worked in agriculture. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Members of the Yahad team with a witness. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The building where the Kommandantur was set up in Krugloye. Today it is a museum. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Viktoria Z., born in 1932: "One Jewish man, Mota, managed to escape to the forest where he joined a partisan unit." ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The place where the Jews were gathered before the shooting in Krugloye. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The execution site of two Jews murdered shortly after the German occupation. (Execution site n°1) At the time it was a private garden. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The execution site of Jews on the outskirts of Krugloye. (Execution site n°2) The remains were exhumed and reburied at the Jewish cemetery. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The monument in memory of 515 Jews murdered by the Nazis in Krugloye ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum

Executions of Jews in Krugloye

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Private garden (1); Close to the river (2)
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
515

Witness interview

Viktoria Z., born in 1932: “I had a Jewish friend. Her name was Busya. She was my age. She had short black curly hair and big eyes. She was very cute. When the Jews were all gathered in one location [ghettoized], she came to my house and my grandmother gave her some food. I was very surprised when I saw how she ate. She was very hungry. We were hungry too, but not like that”. (Testimony N°669, interviewed in Krugloye, on July 12, 2013).

Soviet archives

“The German fascist monsters shot 601 innocent workers in the district of Krugloye, including 206 women and 112 children. 42 people were savagely burned, 11 women and 22 children were among them. 843 men and 879 women were deported for forced labor in Germany. Overall, 2,365 people were shot, hanged, burned or deported in the district.” [Act drawn up on December 26, 1944, by the State Extraordinary Commission; RG 22.002M. 7021-88-42]

Historical note

Krugloye is located about 60km northwest of Mogilev. The first record of the Jewish community goes back to the early 19th century. In 1841, 308 Jews lived in the village and by 1908, this number had increased to 600. There was a synagogue, a cheder, and a Yiddish school until 1935. The majority of Jewish residents were artisans, and some worked in the cooperatives. A small number was involved in agriculture and trade. On the eve of the war, 238 Jews lived in Krugloye, comprising 20 percent of the total population.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The Germans occupied the village on July 8, 1941. Shortly after their arrival, all Jews were registered and marked. They were immediately subjected to forced labor. According to one witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, there were isolated shootings of Jews from the beginning of the occupation. On September 15, 1941, about 60 to 100 men were led away under the pretext of having to carry out hard labor, but they were shot dead in the nearby forest. The remaining women and children were confined to the ghetto created shortly after, along with the Jews who were brought in from Shepelevichi and Teterino. It was composed of two houses located on Moprovskaya Street, fenced in with barbed wire and guarded by local policemen. The 200 remaining Jewish inmates were probably murdered in June 1942. They were led to the execution place close to the river in columns. Each column was escorted by Germans. There were women, children and elderly people among the victims. According to the Soviet archives, some Jews from Krugloye were shot in Klimovichi.

For more information about the executions in Klimovichi please refer to the corresponding profile.

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