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3 Execution site(s)
Valentina L., born in 1925: “Jewish shops were closed. At the beginning they were allowed to stay at home but were forced to work on a daily basis. I saw them every day. They were taken to build roads in a column. There were 50 men and women each time, guarded. They had to wear yellow fabric on their clothes. They were then put in a ghetto close to the synagogue.” (Witness n°961, interviewed in Drohichyn, on September 7, 2018)
“In the center of Drohichyn, close to the jail, Germans prepared a cemetery. They took a lot of inhabitants there in groups. At the cemetery entrance, the Germans released their dogs on people. They tore pieces off them. The Germans threw some of the victims into the graves alive, and shot them with a pistol. After that, they threw the rest of them in. […] In the center of Drohichyn, 250m from the Jewish cemetery in the locality called ‘Zalessie’, I saw Germans bringing wounded people by trucks and throwing them in graves. Some of them were dead, but others were still alive. The Germans threw them all in the graves and covered them with a layer of earth. My apartment was 300m away from this cemetery and, when it was possible, I watched these terrible scens.” [From the statement of a Drohichyn inhabitant, Irina L., made between October 30th 1944 and November 2, 1944. Extraordinary State Commission. GARF 7021-90-28]
“Question: “What do you know about the Drohichyn ghetto evacuation?”
Answer: “During the Drohichyn ghetto evacuation, our group had to manage a part of the external cordon. Then we had to comb the ghetto to find Jews in hiding. We found some old men, women and children. A Jewish woman came to me to inquire if I could save her in exchange for a valuable ring. I brought this woman to a SD man standing close to a pile of jewellery. He threw the ring on the pile and took the woman to the rest of the Jews. Then the SD member of our company transported the Jews to the execution site.
The execution site was in a field, where, a week before, a mass grave had been dug. I couldn’t see the execution from my point of view, however I heard the gunfire. To my estimation, the field was 1km away from the ghetto. The field had been as a sports field. So I already knew that the mass grave was here before our arrival in Drohichyn. Our entire company took part in this intervention. To my memory, the Aktion was carried out in the morning, one day in September 1942, and lasted a whole day.” [Questioning of Augustin H., member of the 306 battalion, regarding the evacuation of the Drohichyn ghetto and the killing of the Jews. ARZ 393-1959. Volume 9 – p.2]
Drohichyn is located 103km east of Brest and 70km west from Pinsk. The first records of the Jewish community go back to the second half of the 15th century. The number of Jews increased quickly in the early part of the twentieth century due to the opening of a railroad station. On the eve of the Second World War, there were 4,500 Jews living in Drohichyn. The Jewish population accounted for the majority of Drohichyn’s population. Jews lived in the center of town, especially in the following streets: 8 March, Brest and Shevshenko. Each community had its own school but a mixed school also existed. There were 2 synagogues.
Drohichyn was occupied by the Germans from June 25, 1941. Two weeks later, they closed the Jewish shops and forced the Jews to wear yellow patches on their clothes. At the same time, Jews who lived in surrounding villages were forced to move into town. From September 1941, the city was taken over by a German civil administration. This new administration instituted new anti-Jewish measures such as forced labor, a ban on walking on sidewalks, reading newspapers, and leaving their houses without authorization. A Judenrat was also elected to facilitate the collection of valuables and gold. Almost a year after the German arrival, on April 1, 1942, all the Jews were moved to two ghettos, one for “useful Jews” and another one for “non-useful Jews”. 1,700 Jews from the latter ghetto were transported by train on July 25, 1942, and shot in Bronnaya Gora alongside Jews from other nearby cities. On October 15, 1942, the former ghetto was liquidated. 3,000 Jews were taken near the railway station in groups of 100, not far from the cemetery, and shot. Before being shot, they were forced to undress. The forensic expert assessment from the Soviet archives gives the number of 3,816 people murdered and buried in this mass grave, including 895 men, 1,083 women and 1,638 children. Some of the victims may also have been non-Jews. There were also two other sites of execution. There is no information about the nationality of the victims (whether they were Jews or not.) The first site was close to the jail, where 150 people were murdered. The second site was in the locality “Zalessie” on the outskirts of the city, close to the Jewish cemetery where 250 people were murdered.
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