Obj. ID: 44766
  Memorials  Holocaust Monument to Nakhman Oleinik in the Jewish Cemetery in Lenin, Belarus, 1992

To the main object: Jewish Cemetery in Lenin, Belarus

Lenin was occupied by German troops on July 18, 1941. A Judenrat was established; Jews were conscripted for forced labor, and much of their property was confiscated. On May 10, 1942, a ghetto was set up in Lenin. It housed some 1,200 Jews, 150 of whom had been brought there from nearby villages. The ghetto was liquidated in mid-August 1942 [Yad Vashem: Untold Stories]. The Lenin Jews were killed in several Aktions [Al'tman 515-516]. 

The commemoration began in 1973 when the stele was erected at the murder site and mass grave on the hill in the direction of the village of St'ablovichy (Steblovichi). In 1989, the monument was replaced with the sculpture of a grieving mother [Botvinnik 218]. [Botvinnik 218]. In November 1982, the grave itself was desecrated by unknown vandals looking for "Jewish gold". Afterward, it was decided to cover the grave with concrete slabs. There, the monument, now standing near the Grieving Mother memorial, was erected in September 1983 [Yad Vashem: Untold Stories]. 

 On August 14, 1992, several obelisks, including the present one, were unveiled at the Lenin Jewish cemetery. These obelisks were financed by donations, apparently from family members of the victims residing in various countries. While the monument under discussion is dedicated to Nakhman Oleynik (the first Jewish victim of Lenin, who was murdered in July 1941), the others commemorate the eight Jewish young Komsomol members who were murdered shortly after the beginning of the occupation; the members of the Gorodetskiy and Flat families, who were murdered in November 1941; and the Jewish insurgents of Hantsavičy (Gantsevichi) labor camp, the partisans and Itshak Issers, who was murdered after the liquidation of the ghetto [Yad Vashem: The Untold Story].