Obj. ID: 57058
  Memorials  Old Holocaust Monument at the Killing Site in Lenin, Belarus, 1973

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 under discussion was erected at the murder site and mass grave on the hill in the direction of the village of St'ablovichy (Steblovichi) [Botvinnik 218]. It was dedicated to 1,850 Jews of Lenin, killed on August 14, 1942 - the day when the local ghetto was liquidated. After the war, each year on August 14, the relatives of the victims would come to Lenin and hold a commemorative ceremony at the mass grave.

In November 1982, the mass grave nearby was desecrated by unknown vandals looking for "Jewish gold". Afterward, it was decided to cover the grave with concrete slabs. In September 1983, the monument was erected above the grave [Yad Vashem: Untold Stories]. 

 In 1989, the 1973 stele was replaced with a sculpture of the Grieving Mother that stands there today. 

There are other monuments in Lenin related to the Holocaust events.

They were unveiled on August 14, 1992, at the local Jewish cemetery. One of them is dedicated to the eight Jewish young Komsomol members, who were murdered shortly after the beginning of the occupation. the others commemorate Nakhman Oleynik (the first Jewish victim of Lenin, who was murdered in July 1941); 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].