Pechishchi | Gomel

/ Ambiance in Pechishchi. The railroad is located not near the village. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The Pechishchi synagogue. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Yahad translator, Olga Kulbachna, looking for witnesses in Pechishchi. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Anna D., born in 1936, emotionally describes the shooting of the Jews. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Anna D, born in 1936, on the road where she saw the column of Jews. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The road that the Jews were forced to take before the shooting in Pechishchi. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The mass shooting site of the Jews from Pechishchi. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Pechishchi

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Garden
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
Around 80-120

Witness interview

Anna D., born in 1936: “One cold morning, my mother appeared in tears, saying that she wanted to put a pillow over her ears. We looked through the window and saw the Jews arriving in a column, escorted by policemen dressed in civilian clothes. It looked like a big crowd." (Witness Eyewitness N°836, interviewed in Pechishchi, on September 19, 2014).

Historical note

Pechishchi is a very small village to the west of the city of Gomel. Before the war, there were few Belarusian families living there. There was a Jewish kolkhoze called Kampf, with more than 100 employees. The Jews also used to attend the synagogue, which was made out of brick. The village was occupied by German troops during the summer of 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

According to historical sources, little is known regarding the fate of the Jews. But thanks to an oral testimony collected by Yahad, it was possible to determine the basic facts of what happened to them during the war.

At the beginning of the German occupation, the kolkhoze was disbanded, but Jews were allowed to remain living in their own houses.

On February 10, 1942, a German punitive kommando invaded the village, rounded all the Jews up and drove them to a garden where they were shot. The corpses remained on the ground for a few days. They were then buried by local villagers in a nearby forest.

Nearby villages

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