Obj. ID: 48083
Memorials First Holocaust memorial at the kiling site in Horovakha (Gorovakha) Selishche village near Slutsk, Belarus, 1951 or 1956
Who is Commemorated?
The Jews of Slutsk who were killed at this place on October 27-28, 1941
Description
This memorial takes the form of an obelisk, with one face bearing a plaque with a Russian inscription, which is set into the memorial.
Inscriptions
In Russian:
28 октября 1941 г.
Здесь было
растрялено
свыше
8000
мирных граждан
Вечная память
жертвам
фашизма!
Translation: October 28, 1941 // Here were shot more than 8,000 civilians // Eternal memory to victims of Fascism!
Commissioned by
The Local Jewish Community
sub-set tree: 
In 1939 7,392 Jews resided in the town, comprising 33.7 percent of the total population.
The Germans occupied Slutsk on June 27, 1941. On October 27-28, 1941 the first major mass murder of Slutsk Jews took place. At the end of 1941-beginning of 1942 two ghettos were established: the "field ghetto" (on the northern outskirts of Slutsk) where Jews unable to work were imprisoned, and the "town ghetto" for working Jews (situated in the old Jewish quarter of the town, Shkolishche), closer to the town center. The "field ghetto" was gradually liquidated in the spring of 1942. On February 8, 1943, the Germans liquidated the "town ghetto."
The mass murder in the Horovakha (Gorovakha) ravine near the village of Selishche (approximately 10 kilometers west of Slutsk) took place on October 27-28, 1941. On October 27, 1941, units of the 11th Reserve Police Battalion surrounded the Slutsk ghetto. German and Lithuanian Battalion members drove the Jews to the market square. At the market square, the Jews underwent a selection, during which several specialists were set apart. The rest of the Jews were ordered to hand over all the valuables in their possession and were then taken to pits in the Horovakha (Gorovakha) ravine and shot there. Some of the Jews were locked overnight into barracks and shot the next day. Figures for the total number of victims of this massacre vary from 3,400 (according to German sources) to 8,000 (according to Soviet sources). [Untold Stories]
The first memorial in Horovakha (Gorovakha), where the mass murder took place on October 27-28, 1941, was erected in 1951 [Smilovitsky] or 1956 [Untold Stories]. Gradually the memorial was dilapidating; in 1998 the second memorial was rebuilt in its place. The second memorial was destroyed in 2006; a third memorial was erected on its base.
Next to the memorial to the Jewish victims, there is a memorial to two non-Jewish local residents who were shot in 1942.
Smilovitsky, Leonid. "Po sledam evreiskikh kladbishch Belarusi. Slutsk," Masterskaia, April 25, 2019 [In Russian]., https://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=46806 (accessed February 28, 2023)
For the photograph of the memorial, see https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/photos/68478