1 Execution site(s)
"In October 1941, a punitive detachment of Germans and policemen, led by a captain whose name I do not remember, arrived in Rudensk from Minsk. When they arrived, they surrounded the street where the Jews lived. The following morning, at dawn, the entire city of Rudensk was surrounded and Jews and Soviet activists were taken to the shooting site. That day, approximately 75 people were shot in a single pit. After the shooting, local people were forced to bury the bodies" [Testimony of Olga C., a local villager , for The Soviet Extraordinary State Commission RG-22.002M.7021-88/13]
Rudensk is a small town situated approximately 40 km east of Minsk. According to one census, there were 176 Jews (16% of the total population) living in the village on the eve of the war. The village was occupied by German forces in late June 1941. It is estimated that one third of the prewar Jewish population managed to evacuate before German arrival.
Upon the Germans’ arrival, all Jews were forced to register. An open and unguarded ghetto was created on Dukora Street. It existed from September 1941 to Ocotber 10, 1941, when it was liquidated by German police forces, assisted by Lithuanian auxiliaries and local Belarusian police. The Jews were chased out of their homes and assembled at the central square. They were then taken to the quarry where they were shot. There were circa. 120-300 Jewish victims.
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