Obj. ID: 44741
Memorials Holocaust Memorial in Smilavichy (Smilovichi), Belarus, 1965
Memorial name:
No official name.
Who is Commemorated?
2,000 Jews of Smilavichy (Smilovichi), killed on October 14, 1941.
Description
The monument is erected in the town's center. It has the form of a wide stele, standing on a massive base. On the stele, an ethnically neutral Russian inscription and the figures of a man, a woman, and a child are carved. On the base of the monument, there is a memorial plaque added in the 2000s with Magen David and another ethnically neutral Russian inscription.
Inscription
On the stele, in Russian:
1941
Мирным гражданам
жертвам фашистских
оккупантов
1945
Translation: 1941 / To the peaceful citizens / victims of the fascist / occupiers / 1945.
On the plaque added in the 2000s, in Russian:
Здесь покоится прах
2000 мирных граждан
г.п. Смиловичи,
расстреляных
фашисткими палачами
14 октября 1941 года
Translation: Here lies the ash / of 2000 peaceful citizens / of the u.s. [urban settlement] of Smilovichi, / shot / by the fascist hangmen / on October 14, 1941.
Commissioned by
The victims' relatives.
sub-set tree: 
The town of Smilavichy (Smilovichi) was occupied on June 29, 1941. In three days the repressions against Jews began. In August the ghetto was established [Al'tman 914-915).
The present monument was erected in 1965 at Proletarskaia St and commemorates 2000 Jews of Smilavichy (Smilovichi) killed on October 14, 1941. On that day a pogrom in the ghetto occurred. The ghetto was surrounded by the Lithuanian and local police. The Jews were shot near the pre-prepared pit [Al'tman 914-915].
The monument was erected with the money of the Jewish survivors and according to the project of a local sculptor (his name is unknown). It took a lot of time to get permission for the monument's erection. The desires of the Smilavichy (Smilovichi) Jews for a Yiddish inscription, the depiction of Magen David, and the mention of Jews as the victims were not fulfilled. The faces of the man, woman, and child are of a Slavic type - it was a strict requirement of the Soviet ideological authorities [Izrailevich].
Presumably in the 2000s, the plaque at the monument's base was renewed: the ethnically natural inscription was preserved, but the depiction of Magen David at the upper part of the plaque was added.
Today the monument is a place of commemorative ceremonies.
Near the monument, there are two private memorials dedicated to the families killed in that place. One of them belongs to the Rozovski family and the other to the Goldberg family [profapkminsk.by].
For the image of the memorial to the Goldberg family, see
"Nevidimaia nit' pokolenii - god istoricheskoi pam'ati," Profapkminsk.by, February 21, 2022, https://profapkminsk.by/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8-%D0%B8-%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8B%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%8F/p-34233.html (accessed February 13, 2025)
For the image of the original memorial plaque, see
Shulman, Arkadii, "Na rodin'e Haima Sutina", Mishpoha., https://web.archive.org/web/20211009101440/http://mishpoha.org/n25/25a04.php (accessed February 13, 2025)
Il'ya, Al'tman (ed.), Kholokost na territorii SSSR (Moskva: ROSSPEN, 2011), pp.914-915.
Lev Izrailevich, "Sem'ia materi," Moio Mestechko., https://web.archive.org/web/20130622094612/http://shtetle.co.il/shtetls_minsk/smilovichi/smilovichi.html (accessed February 13, 2025)