Obj. ID: 56459
Memorials "Grieving Mother" Monument in Valozhyn (Volozhin), Belarus, 1958
Memorial Name
"Grieving Mother"
Who is Commemorated?
Jews of Valozhyn (Volozhin), killed on November 4, 1941.
Description
The monument "Grieving Mother" is situated at the site of the sports ground, where the Valozhyn (Volozhin) Jews were killed on November 4, 1941. It is shaped in a typical Soviet style, like a sculpture of the half-crouching, mourning woman.
A plaque, added in the 2000s, indicates that the present monument stands at the military burial site protected by law.
In 2015, after the reburial of the remains of the Jewish citizens who were killed in the vicinity, a memorial slab with a Belarusian inscription was added beside the sculpture. The ethnic identity of the victims is not mentioned.
Inscription
According to Yad Vashem, there is a memorial plaque with the inscription in Russian:
Translation: Here are buried Soviet civilians bestially tortured to death by the German invaders during the years of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
However, this inscription is not seen in the images from the 2000s.
On the plaque added in the 2000s:
In Belarusian
Рэспубліка Беларусь
Воінскае пахаванне
Прычыненне шкоды
караецца па
закону
6471
Translation: The Republic of Belarus / The military burial site / Infliction of harm / is punishable by law / 6471.
On the slab added in 2015 above the site of the reburial:
In Belarusian
У памяць мiрных жыхароў Валожына, расстраляных нацыстамi ў 1941 — 1942 гадах
Translation: In memory of the peaceful citizens of Valozhyn, shot by the Nazis in 1941-1942.
Commissioned by
The local authorities
The images were done before the reconstruction of 2015.
sub-set tree: 
| near the stadium, between Pushkina Street and Kastrychnitskaia (formerly Dubinskaia) Street
Valozhyn (Volozhin) was occupied on June 25, 1941 [Al'tman p.179]. The three murder "Aktions" were carried out in Valozhyn (Volozhin): in August 1941, on November 4, 1941, and on May 10, 1942. The ghetto was liquidated on August 29, 1942.
In 1958 the monument under discussion, called "Grieving Mother," was erected by the Soviet authorities at the site of the sports ground, the site of the second mass murder of Valozhyn (Volozhin) Jews, that of November 4, 1941. On that day the Germans assembled all the local Jews on one street in the ghetto, selected ca. 200 Jews - under the pretext that these would be taken to work - and shot them, along with the chairman of the Jewish council Garber [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
In 2014 the authorities allocated a plot of land near the sports ground for a building activity. During the works, 107 remains of Jewish victims were found. The remains were reburied near the "Grieving Mother" sculptor. In 2015, a memorial slab, with a Belarusian inscription that does not mention the victims' ethnicity, was added beside the sculpture. Its unveiling ceremony took place on July, 2 and was attended by local residents, war veterans, representatives of authorities and public organizations, foreign diplomats, clergy, and journalists [holocf.ru]. Today the monument is a place of memorial ceremonies.
There are other monuments related to the Holocaust in the city:
In 1945, a monument was erected on present-day Gorkii Street, near the local hospital. It commemorates all the Jewish victims of Valozhyn (Volozhin) [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
In 1961 the sculptural monument was erected at the site of the German executions of prisoners, today Komsomol'skaia St. [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
In 1987 the monument was erected at 53 Pushkin Street, at the initiative of a family of survivors, to commemorate the local Jews, who were killed by the Germans and their accomplices in three mass murders [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
The monument erected in 2000 overlooks the six mass graves where the murdered Jews were buried in 1941-1942, as well as the site of the third massacre, that of May 10, 1942.
For an image, see
Wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ghetto_Valozhyn.
Il'ya, Al'tman (ed.), Kholokost na territorii SSSR (Moskva: ROSSPEN, 2011), pp.179-180.
"Pamiat' o tragedii v Volozhine,", https://holocf.ru/память-о-трагедии-в-воложине-это-надо/ (accessed December 24, 2024)
"Volozhyn,"
Untold Stories - Murder Sites of Jews in Occupied Territories of the USSR (Yad Vashem project), https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/untold-stories/community/14622365.