Lyakhovichi | Brest

/ The location of the ghetto in Lyakhovichi. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Irina B. took food to the ghetto in secret. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Ian S. was requisitioned to fill in the mass grave. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum During the interview, Yan S. recounted how the Jews held each other’s hands before falling into the pit. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Maria S., Polish, born in 1925: "After the first execution, the Jews were locked up in the ghetto, which was spread across several streets. The territory was fenced in with barbered wire." ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Mikhail O., born in 1924, pointing out the location of the mass grave. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Today, the mass grave is in a vegetable patch. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum The monument to the Jewish victims of Lyakhovichi. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Lyakhovichi

3 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Sand pit
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944

Witness interview

Maria S.: "The Jewish survivors of the first mass shooting were locked up in a ghetto. The ghetto was spread across several streets and was surrounded by posts and barbed wire. There was a front gate which was guarded by policemen and possibly some German soldiers. There were 3 mass shootings in 1942 to liquidate the Jews. There was one particular one I remember in March of that year. The pit one large mass shooting from 1941 was opened again for that occasion. At the end only the top “skilled workers” were kept alive. They were shot last, one or two weeks after the second mass shooting." (Witness N°255, interviewed in March 2010)

Historical note

Lyakhovichi is located 20km southeast of Baranovichi. At the time of the German occupation, there were more than 3,000 Jewish inhabitants in the town, a number swelled by an influx of refugees fleeing from central and western Poland.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

In November 1941, the Jews were gathered in the central square, before being taken and killed in a sand pit near the village of Lotva. The day of the massacre, the remaining Jews were locked up in a fenced ghetto in a poor area of the town. Another Aktion took place in June 1942, during which 300 Jews were killed near the location of the first shooting. That day, a revolt in the ghetto took place and several Jews managed to join the partisans. The Jews killed inside the ghetto were buried at the same location as the previous killings.

Nearby villages

To support the work of Yahad-in Unum please consider making a donation

Do you have additional information regarding a village that you would like to share with Yahad ?

Please contact us at contact@yahadinunum.org
or by calling Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17