Bobynichi (Babynichi) | Vitebsk

The Sherman family: in the center - Sheina and Shaia, on the left – Michel, 10 years old, in 1894. Picture taken in Bezhitse, a region of Bryansk in 1922. ©Taken from Stetle.com / Lyubov P., born in 1926, was deported as a forced laborer to Germany. ©Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad - In Unum Raisa S., born in 1930: “They were taken there in the evening to be shot. Before that, they packed up their houses. They thought maybe they would stay alive. They were packing their belongings.” ©Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad - In Unum The Yahad - In Unum team during an interview, 2019. ©Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad - In Unum The memorial for at least 108 Bobynichi Jews murdered by Nazis during WWII. ©Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad - In Unum Between December 1941 and January 1942, at least 108 Jews were taken to a field close to the town and shot by the Germans. The monument is located 300m away from the actual execution site. ©Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Bobynichi

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field near the cemetery
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
108

Witness interview

Raissa S., born in 1930: “Y.U.: Were there Jews in your class?
Witness: Babynichi was a Jewish borough, but Belarusians lived in our village. There were mainly Jews in the village. There were children and we had good relations with them, and between the families; they helped however they could, and our women would sell them things… that was before the war. And we went to school. Our school had been built ten years earlier. There were nine or ten classes.
Translator: And so there were Jews in your class as well, right?
Witness: Yes. In our class, there were two Jewish boys, in the second class. There were two boys. Ger… Geri… Wait, I’ll remember. Hoffman Girsha. A good boy. And Itsik. This one was naughtier. But had good relations. They helped. And in general, the Jews were very good people. They were on good terms with us, Belarusians. […
Translator: And do you know what their professions were?
Witness: Some worked in the workshop and some worked in the shoe repair shop. Their children… well… they studied up to the 8th class. […] They were caught out by the war. The Germans killed them. They stayed in school. But while the Jews lived here, no one ever harmed them. They lived here until 1942, nobody left, and we had good relations during the war too. Our parents would sell them food, because the Jews… they didn’t have any cattle. They used to buy everything from the population. That’s it.” (Witness °1063B, interviewed din Bobynichi, on November 9, 2019)

Historical note

Bobynichi is located 32 km (20 miles) southwest of Polotsk and 150km (93 miles) east north of Vitebsk. In 1920, 170 Jews lived in the village out of 219. According to the local villagers interviewed by Yahad, the majority of Jews were either merchants or artisans. For instance, Yahad - In Unum’s witness n°1061B remembers a Jewish shoemaker, Mr Letmann, who was mobilized in 1941, and perished at the front. There was also a butter factory where some of Jewish people worked. The Jewish community didn’t have a synagogue or a prayer house in Bobynichi. The nearest prayer house was located in Uschachi. However, there was a Jewish cemetery in Bobynichi. The Jewish and non-Jewish children went to the same school.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Bobynichi was occupied by the Germans in early July 1941. Straight after the occupation, the Jews continued to live in their houses without being registered and marked. They were rounded up and put in a sort of a ghetto just one month prior to the Aktion. According to the historian Martin Dean, the ghetto consisted of a single house which used to belong to a kolkhoz, although the local villagers mentioned that that was a school building. After being confined there for a month, on January 15, 1942, about 108 Jewish inmates, mainly women, children and the elderly, were taken outside the village and shot in the field. The execution was conducted by Germans and local police who most probably arrived from Polotsk. According to Adamushko V.I., [Spravotchnik o mestakh prinouditelnogo soderjania grajdanskogo naselenia na okoupirovannoï teritorii Belaroussi 1941-1944, NARB, 2001] another execution took place before the main one, in December 1941.  Unfortunately, Yahad - In Unum was ubable to find more information on this execution.

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