Lakhva (Lachwa, Łachwa) | Brest

The town of Lakhva, 1926. ©Public domain, Wikipedia Lakhva before the ware. Photograph taken in Lavkha by Yahad team. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Map of the Lakhva ghetto. ©Public domain, Wikipedia Yitzhak Rochzyn, leader of the Jewish revolt in Lakhva. ©Yad Vashem Photo Collection / After the ghetto uprising, hundreds of Jews were taken by the Germans and the local police to pits outside the village, where they were shot. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Site where the Jews murdered in the ghetto were buried. The Germans requisitioned local farmers and carts to collect the bodies. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Ksenya S., born in 1917, saw the column of the Jews being led to the killing site. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Maria A., born in 1929, remembered ghetto uprising. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Lakhva

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
1,946

Witness interview

Pyotr P. born in 1930, remembers the Lakhva ghetto revolt: "The Jews set fire to their houses. We were mowing grass that day when suddenly we heard shots comng from Lakhva. My father said something must be wrong. We then saw the Jews were running away. Younger ones were carrying rifles and machine guns. They ran towards the Pripyat river.” (Witness N°182, interviewed in Lakhva, in 2009).

Soviet archives

"Near the village of Lakhva, the Commission found a pit (25x2x2,5m), on the territory of the fishing area, 50m to the west of the vicinal road Lakhva-Mikashevichi, which contained the bodies of the Jewish population of Lakhva – including 698 women and 724 children.” [Act of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, drawn up on April 10, 1945; RG-22.002M/7021-90/31]

German archives

"We managed to find many fugitives. The dead and injured were taken to the execution site by members of the unit. I had to carry a dead woman to the killing site with a comrade. There, I saw a pit, which was 10m long, 3m wide and 2m deep. To the best of my knowledge, the grave was already filled a third of the way up with dead people - men, women and children. I spent a brief time at the execution site. I saw how the victims jumped or were pushed into the pit, where they lay on people who had already been killed. They were then shot from the edge of the mass grave with a machine gun." [Deposition of Heinrich S., made on July 4, 1962, a member of a police battalion who took an active part in the liquidation of the Lakhva ghetto; B162-4954]

Historical note

During the interwar period, Lakhva was located in Poland. There were many Jewish organizations: Zionist movements, a sport association and a Maccabi, a Tarbut school. Typically, the Jews worked in shops, workshops, mills and warehouses. On the eve of the war, circa. 2,300 Jews were living in Lakhva. The town fell under Soviet administration in 1939. Many Jewish organizations were banned and the three synagogues were closed.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The Germans arrived in Lakhva in July 1941. In April 1942, a ghetto, divided into two parts, was established next to the river and was guarded by the local Ukrainian and Belarusian police. Some young Jews organized an underground resistance group. The liquidation of the ghetto took place on September 02, 1942, and was conducted by the Security Police based in Pinsk. When the Germans entered the ghetto, the Jews set fire to the building of the Judenrat. Some Jews managed to escape while the ghetto was burning. About 600 Jews were able to reach the Pripyat River, with some of them joining up with the partisans in the forests. About 1,500 Jews were killed during the ghetto uprising, and approximately 300 were shot in mass pits. Only 90 Jews from Lakhva survived.

Nearby villages

  • Kamen (Brest)
  • Kozhan-Gorodok
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