Obj. ID: 34184
Memorials New Holocaust Monument at the Killing Site in Klimavichy (Klimovichi), Belarus, 2018
Memorial name:
No official name.
Who is Commemorated?
More than 900 Jews of Klimavichy (Klimovichi) shot to death by the Nazis and their collaborators on November 6-7, 1941.
Description:
The new monument at the killing site of more than 900 Jews of Klimavichy (Klimovichi) was erected instead of the old one which dates back to the 1950s (see here).
The modern monument has the shape of an upright stele that stands on the paved podium.
At the upper part of the monument, there is a depiction of the menorah. It is followed by three non-identical inscriptions: in Belarusian, English, and Hebrew.
At the bottom of the monument, there is an additional inscription identifying the foundations that erected the monument.
On one of the monument's sides, there is a plaque asserting that the present site is a civilians' mass grave of the Great Patriotic War period.
The fence with a Magen David pattern surrounds the monument.
Inscriptions:
At the central part of the monument:
In Belarusian:
Ахвярам нацызму.
Тут у 1941 г. былі расстраляныя
больш за 900 яўрэяў горада Клімавічы.
Вы назаўжды ў нашай памяці
Translation: To the victims of Nazism. / On this site in 1941 were shot to death / more than 900 Jews of the town of Klimovichi. / You are forever in our memory.
In English:
To the victims of Nazism.
More than 900 Jews from
the town of Klimovichi
were murdered here in 1941.
In Hebrew:
לזכר יותר מ-900 קורבנות היהודים
מהעיירה קלימוביץ׳ [קלימוביץ׳י] הי׳׳ד
שנרצחו על ידי הנאצים
במקום הזה ב-1941
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה
Translation: In memory of the more than 900 Jewish victims / from the town of Klimovichi, God will avenge their blood / who were killed by the Nazis / on this site in 1941 / May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.
At the bottom of the monument, in English:
This memorial was erected through the efforts of
Belarusian Jewish Community and thanks to
to the Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation UK,
the Miles and Marilyn Kletter Foundation, USA
On the plaque, in Russian:
Братская могила
Место массового захоронения
гражданского населения
в годы Великой
Отечественной войны.
г. Климовичи, ул. Бирюзова
(100 м от центральной дороги)
Климовичиский райисполком
пл. 50 лет Великого Октября, 2
Translation: The mass grave / The site of mass burial / of the civilians / during the Great / Patriotic war. / Klimovichi, Biriuzova St. / (100 from the central road) / Klimovichi's district executive committee /50 years of the Great October Sq., 2.
Commissioned by
The Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation UK, The Miles and Marilyn Kletter Foundation, USA
6 image(s) Items per page
sub-set tree: 
| Biriuzova St, 100 from the central road
The Germans occupied Klimavichy (Klimovichi) on August 10, 1941. The Jews of the town and nearby localities were shot in a number of murder operations between November 1941 and the spring of 1943. Only fifteen of the local Jews survived the German occupation [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
At the end of the 1950s, relatives of the Jewish victims living in Klimavichy (Klimovichi), as well as other parts of the USSR, collected money to establish a monument [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. In 2018, it was replaced by the monument under discussion. It is one of the about 100 monuments erected by the Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation, the Miles and Marilyn Kletter Family Foundation, and the Warren and Beverly Geisler Family Foundation. All of these monuments have a similar shape and are adorned with a menorah.
Today the monument is a place of commemorative ceremonies.
Another monument was also probably erected in the 1950s. It was situated at the edge of the Jewish cemetery, where the twelve hostages were killed and later the remains of the Jews, killed in Kreidava Gara (Melovaya Gora), were reburied [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. In 2018, it was replaced by a new monument erected by the Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation, the Miles and Marilyn Kletter Family Foundation, and the Warren and Beverly Geisler Family Foundation [Smilovitskii].
An additional monument, commemorating the Jews of Klimavichy (Klimovichi), was erected in Vydrynka (Vydrinka) village.
"Klimovichi (Biriuzova)," Belarus Holocaust Memorials Project., https://www.belarusmemorials.com/мемориалы/могилевский-регион/климовичи-бирюзова/?lang=ru (accessed December 25, 2023)
Lazarus, Michael, "The Belarus Memorials Project: The Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation, The Miles and Marilyn Kletter Family Foundation, The Geisler Family Foundation," in: Killing Sites – Research and Remembrance (Berlin: Metropol, 2015), 205-207., https://www.academia.edu/11753495/Holocaust_Memorials_in_the_Belarusian_Culture_of_Remembrance (accessed January 16, 2024)
"Pamiatnik zhertvam natsizma," Zhetvy nenavisti. Kholokost., https://izi.travel/en/b93d-zhertvy-nenavisti-kholokost/ru#/browse/a32b77af-0814-46a8-9a07-7d813e10d66c/ru (accessed December 25, 2023)
Smilovitsky, Leonid, "Po sledam evreiskikh kladbishch Belarusi: Klimovichi'," Zhurnal-gazeta "Masterskaia," ed. Evgenii Berkovich., https://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=54622., https://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=54622 (accessed December 18, 2024)
Untold Stories - Murder Sites of Jews in Occupied Territories of the USSR (Yad Vashem project), https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/untold-stories/community/14621666.