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1 Killing site(s)
Maria P., born in 1931: "Somebody warned the Jews when the German arrived in the village, and they went to hide in the forest or in nearby fields. The next time the Germans came they had learned their lesson. They came early in the morning in covered trucks and surrounded the village. With the help of the village mayor, they entered the Jewish homes and gathered all the Jews in the court of the forest administration." (Witness N°820, interviewed in Kovchitsy, on June 23, 2014).
Kovchitsy II is a small village, a former Jewish agricultural colony, 35 km south of the city of Bobruisk. Before the war, nearly half of the village’s population, around 200 people, was Jewish. There was neither a synagogue, nor a Jewish cemetery, as the Jews were buried in the neighboring village of Parichi.
According to historical documents, little is known about the fate of the Jews in Kovchitsy. Yahad - In Unum’s field research was however able to document basic information regarding events in the village during the war. At the beginning of the German occupation, in the summer of 1941, the Jews were allowed to continue to live freely in their homes. One morning, on January 21, 1942, a German punitive commando squad surrounded the village and gathered all the Jews in the court of the forest administration. The Germans were aided by the local police and by the mayor of the village. The Jews were then killed in the forest. According to a local testimony recorded by Yahad, they were shot in a pit dug in advance by requisitioned local residents. After the war, the bodies of the Jews were exhumed and re-buried in the Jewish cemetery in Bobruisk.
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