2 Execution site(s)
Nikolay M.: “The Jews were killed in a grave on the outskirts of the village, near the linen factory. I saw the shooting from about 300 meters away. I saw how the Jews went up to the grave and heard gunfire. I couldn’t see very well. I left at the beginning of the shooting. I remember how cold it was.” (Witness N°645, interviewed in Gory, on June 19, 2013).
There was a Jewish community in Gory dating back to the end of the 17th century. During the Soviet period in the 1930s, the majority of the Jews were worked as artisans, in agriculture or in the flax factory. There was a kolkhoz and a Yiddish school. At the end of the 1920s, there were 355 Jews in the village. The German occupation began on July 12, 1941.
As soon as the occupation began, numerous shootings took place in the village. First, three Jewish men were shot. According to German sources, on October 10, 1941, members of EK8 surrounded the village. Nikolay M. (Witness N°645) remembers that the Germans and local policemen led a large column of Jews out of the village. A large pit had been dug at the flax factory. The Jews were ordered to undress and lie face down in the pit before being shot. Circa. 200 victims were murdered during the execution.
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