WWII - The Killing Fields of Shklov

During World War II, Shklov was occupied by German forces from July 1941 until June 1944, when it was liberated by the troops of the second Belorussian Front.   After the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941, when the Wehrmacht crossed into Soviet territory, the Germans quickly made their way through Belorussia as German forces carried out their drive towards Moscow.   The Soviet forces had been caught off guard by the German attack on Soviet territory, and abandoned Brest.   Over the next seven weeks every major city in Belarus fell to the Germans, and by the end of August the republic was completely occupied.   The front moved so quickly that many of those who tried to flee eastward ahead of the advancing German troops were not able to do so.   A significant number of Jewish refugees arrived in Shklov from other nearby areas, many from towns further south fleeing the advancing troops.  

Shklov was occupied by the Germans on July 12, 1941.   Some Jews succeeded in escaping just before the Germans entered the city and evacuating eastward,  and some joined the Partisans hiding in the forests.   There were also some surviving Jewish population among those young men who were serving at the Front in the Soviet Army, who returned after surviving the front-lines fighting to find the hideous destruction to their communities that had taken place in their absence. 

Mass executions of the Jewish population began immediately in July 1941, right after the arrival of the Germans.   By early October, virtually all of the Jews who remained in Shklov had been shot and buried in mass pits, along with several thousand Jewish refugees who had taken refuge in Shklov.    Between mid-July and the beginning of October 1941, the Jews of Shklov were murdered by the Germans in several different mass killing actions.    

The memoirs of survivors and eye-witnesses reveal that the killings in Shklov took place according to a pattern that repeated itself in town after town across the Jewish Pale of settlement, where the Jews were forced to march to a place a the edge of town where pits had been dug, and then group after group the Jews either brought to the edge of the pit and shot or thrown into the pit and then shot.  When the last of the Jews were shot, the pit was hastily covered with dirt.  Not all the Jews within the pits were actually dead yet, as the dead and the wounded were all tossed into the pit and buried, and the ground moved for days as still-living wounded writhed in pain.    In Shklov, as in the rest of Belorussia, the Jews suffered irrecoverable losses.   Approximately 800,000 Belarussian Jews were tortured and killed.   Hundreds of Belarussian Jewish villages were wiped out.    The vibrant Jewish cultural world that and community life that once flourished in this area ceased to exist. 

The Creation of Ghettos in Shklov

Following the German occupation of Shklov July 12, 1941, the Germans appointed a local administration which, but the end of July had ordered the concentration of Shklov's Jews into two main Ghettos --  one in the village of Rizhkovich, south of Shklov (in a fenced-off area near the local church) and another on the territory of the Flax Factory ("LinZavod").   About 100 other Jews were confined to the territory of the "Iskra" Kolkhoz.    The inmates of the Shklov ghettos were concentrated in these locations, ordered to wear yellow Stars of David, and cut off from their previous residences.   Unlike some of the larger ghettos in Belorussia, the Jews did not remain long in the ghettos of Shklov, as once concentrated in these locations, they were soon rounded up and forced to their deaths.   Putting the Jews into ghettos was the "next-to-last step" before the "final solution." 

It has been reported that the ghetto in Rizhkevich held more than 2,700 Jews.   The ghetto in Shklov at the Flax Factory held about 3,200 Jews.  

Survivor Alexandra Borisovna Shumina (born 1923) reminisced that "In Rizhkevich the Jews were lodged right in the field by the Orthodox Church.   Everyone sat on the ground, and slept there too.   It frequently rained.   People were thoroughly drenched, as there was no roof overhead to provide protection, nor warm house for warming up.   Police guarded the Jews in the Rizhkevich field.  

Alexander Andreevich Revyako, who was born in 1929, reminisced that "In 1941, right after the German occupation, many Jews were resettled in the Rizhkevich village."  Several Jewish families lived in the village itself,  and huge numbers of Jews were then crowded into their houses, though the majority stayed in the field by the church.   The poor Jews were harassed and tormented.   For example, the put a matchbox on someone's head and then shot.   Some 500 meters from the village they shot youths in craters that remained from bombing.    They were shot in eight groups, each shooting lasting for one day.   

The ghetto in Rizhkovich was not closed with gates or locks.  It was the "open" type of ghetto.    A second ghetto, which was of the "closed" type was at the Flax Factory.   Survivor Leonid Efimovich Ovchinnikov reminisced that ghetto residents were forced to wear the yellow star on their clothing.  Boris Mikhailovich Galperin, who was born in 1927, reminisced, saying that "From the first days of the war I saw many refugees..   about the Ghetto at the Flax Factory, saying that he and his family had  been sent there.   "We were kept under guard.   After 6:00 PM we were not allowed to go out of the building, the penalty for any violation was being shot."   

The second part of the program for destruction of the Jewish population involved registration of the Jews and carrying out a general census of the population.  By gathering full information about people the Fascists were able to use this statistic information as a target list.    The Jewish population was divided into three categories.   The first was targeted for immediate liquidation.   That included those who might be able to organize, lead, or even just participate in resistance.  With this goal the Fascists first shot any leaders, ideological workers, intelligentsia and young men.  

Flax Factory Building in Summer 2011	Closer View of Main Flax Factory Building
Honor Board for Flax Factory Staff	Flax Factory WWII Memorial (does not mention Jews killed)

Survivors Talk about the Mass Killing Actions 

A Survivor of the Mass Shooting

Caption:  Road behind Zarecha Leading to the Site of the Killing Field

Exhumation and Reburial of the Victims

Caption: Memorial in the Jewish Cemetery of Shklov marking the mass grave.   In 1955 their remains were transferred from the killing field to this cemetery site.	Caption: Saying Memorial Prayer for Victims of Shklov's Mass Killings - August 2011

Some Names of Victims Shot in Mass Killing Actions

A Soldier Returns from the Front to find his Family were Victims of the Mass Shooting

Shklov, the 28th of August 1944 To my dear and loving brother Aron, sister-in-law Fagel and your children,     To you writes your brother Lazer Fleer.   My dear ones, I was on the Front and have now come back to Shklov.   My wife and four children were killed by the Germans.   All brothers and sisters and also all the Jews were killed by the Germans.  Children were buried alive and half the town burned.   The heart breaks looking at the ground which is drenched with Jewish blood.    I am now with my eldest son Israel, who came back from the Front wounded, and his wife.      We have no one else.   Life is now hard.    I ask you very much to write to me all about yourselves.   And if I get a letter from you, I will write you more.  I greet you all and kiss you many times.   My son Israel and his wife Leah send their regards to all.   Write soon.   Answer at this address; USSR SHKLOV Mogilev Oblast Do Vostrebovania L.D. Fleer

Caption: Yiddish Original as Published in The Forward

Caption: English Translation

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