Nesvizh | Minsk

/ Former Jewish stalls. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Yelena S. remembers that the column was escorted by Germans with dogs. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Sofia G. remembers that the rabbi was in front of the Jewish column being led to the shooting. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Bronislava remembers liking going in to the Jewish shops. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum The Yahad team with a witness during an interview. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Rabbi Mendel Samama, rabbinical advisor to Yahad - In Unum, near the execution site. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum The site of the Jewish shooting in Radzivil palace park. The corpses were exhumed after the war and reburied in the cemetery. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Nesvizh

3 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Park/forest
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Witnesses interviewed:
7

Witness interview

Stanislav V.: "There were a lot of men, women and children. I saw the what happened with my friends from my garden. The Jews had to get undressed and go to the grave in groups. The grave wasn’t dug by anyone, it was a natural stone-pit.”(Witness N°466, interviewed in May 2011)

Soviet archives

"On July 27, 1941, the police and the gendarmerie burned the houses of the ghetto. During the resulting fire, civilians were shot. 700 people were killed, including several doctors, engineers, etc. Some of the bodies were buried on site and the rest were taken to the village of Alba and buried in a forest." [Act of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, RG-22.002M/7021-81/102]

Historical note

Nesvizh, a city famous for its 18th century Polish Radzivil castle is located 94km southwest of Minsk. In 1939, there were about 7,000 inhabitants, of which some 4,000 were Jews. In September 1939, when Poland was attacked, the Jewish population increased as many Jewish refugees arrived in Nesvizh from western and central Poland. The city was under German occupation from 1941 to 1945.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

On October 30, 1941, the Jewish population was ordered to gather at the marketplace. After a selection process, 585 skilled workers and family members were separated. The remaining Jews, around 4,000 individuals, were shot in pits dug at two separate sites. One large group was escorted on foot to the park surrounding the Radzivil palace. A second group of about 2,000 Jews were taken to another site, 2km away, next to the road to Snov. The surviving Jews were taken to the ghetto, an area of 3 streets fenced in with barbed wire, in the centre of Nesvizh, according to Bronislava Z. interviewed by Yahad - In Unum. After the establishment of the ghetto, many Jews began to arm themselves. On July 20, 1942, when the liquidation of the ghetto was ordered, a violent revolt broke out. Many Jews were killed in the ghetto, and others managed to join the partisans.

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