Rosony (Rasony, Rossony) | Vitebsk

/ The Yahad team during an interview. ©David Merlin /Yahad – In Unum Anatolii P., born in 1934 showing the execution site. ©David Merlin /Yahad – In Unum The execution site where hundreds of Jews were murdered. ©David Merlin /Yahad – In Unum Anatolii P., born in 1934: “The Germans with their German shepherds took the Jews there and forced them into the trench. They killed the Jews and left in the direction of the center.” ©David Merlin /Yahad – In Unum The memorial to the Jews murdered in Rosony in fall 1941. ©David Merlin /Yahad – In Unum The Yahad team during field research. ©David Merlin /Yahad – In Unum

Execution of Jews in Rosony

1 Killing site(s)

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

Witness interview

Anatoli P., born in 1934: “The day after the execution I went to the murder site. The pit wasn’t covered and I could see their bodies at the bottom. Some of them weren’t dead, only wounded." (Witness n°77B, interviewed in Rosony, on July 21, 2008)

Soviet archives

"On January 1942, at the Polotsk marketplace, the director of the Culture House, the politician Klepikov and a senior politician of Rosony were hanged.” [Act drawn up by Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (ChGK): GARF 7021-92-222/Copy RG-22.002M]

Historical note

Rosony is located in eastern Belarus, close to the Russian border, 150 km (93mi) northwest of Vitebsk and 50 km (31 mi) north of Polotsk. The first records of the Jewish community date back to the early 19th century. Typically, the Jews worked in shops, workshops, mills, and warehouses. There is no exact information about how many Jews lived in Rosony, but according to the local witness there was a significant Jewish community that represented over the half of the total population. 

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Rosony was occupied by German forces in July 1941. Shortly after the German arrival all the Jews were marked with yellow badges. There was no ghetto in the town, the Jews continued to live in their homes until mid-fall 1941. Then they were murdered with the Jews from nearby villages, such as Yurovichi.

Nearby villages

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