Obj. ID: 9343
Memorials Old Holocaust Monument at the Killing Site in Klimavichy (Klimovichi), Belarus, 1950s
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
More than 900 Jews of Klimavichy (Klimovichi) shot to death by the Nazis and their collaborators on November 6-7, 1941.
Description
The monument was erected in the 1950s at the killing site and mass grave of the Klimavichy (Klimovichi) Jews. It was shaped like a stele standing on a concrete base. The monument bore a marble plaque with Yiddish and Russian inscriptions. Originally, the Star of David and the letters pei-nun ("here lie") were a part of the monument.
A paved path led to the monument which was enclosed by a fence with the six-pointed star's forms.
In 2018 the monument was replaced by a new one (see here).
Inscription
In Yiddish
דא זיינען באערדיגט
די קארבאנעוס פון קלימאוויטש
וואס זיינען אומגיבראכט גיווארן
... פאשיסטישע מערדער
דעם 6 נאיאבר 1941
אייביקער אנדענק די קדושים
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה
Translation: Here lie the victims of Klimovichi who were destroyed by the fascist murderers on November 6, 1941. May the holy martyrs be granted eternal memory. May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.
In Russian
Здесь похоронены
жертвы погибшие от рук
фашистских палачей
6 ноября 1941 г.
Вечная память мученикам
Translation: Here lie / the victims who perished at the hands / of the fascist hangmen / on November 6, 1941. / May the martyrs be granted eternal memory.
Commissioned by
The relatives of the victims.
sub-set tree: 
Building/site does not exist
| Near the hospital, Dolgaia Dubrava
The Germans occupied Klimavichy (Klimovichi) on August 10, 1941. The Jews of the town and nearby localities were shot in a number of murder operations between November 1941 and the spring of 1943. Only fifteen of the local Jews survived the German occupation [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
At the end of the 1950s, relatives of the Jewish victims living in Klimavichy (Klimovichi), as well as other parts of the USSR, collected money to establish the monument. It was inscribed in Yiddish and Russian, as well as with a Star of David and the Hebrew letters pei-nun ("Here lie") [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. With the rupture of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Israel in 1967, local authorities ordered the Jews to remove the Star of David from the monument [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. However, the Jews refused to do it [Zeltser, pp.182-183]. So, the authorities removed the Magen David themselves, claiming it was a fascist symbol [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. The six-pointed star was restored in the late 1980s [Smilovitskii].
Every Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the month of Av, a major Jewish day of mourning when Jews of Eastern Europe traditionally visit cemeteries), relatives of the murdered Jews came to the monument from different parts of the USSR to commemorate the victims [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].
In 2018 the monument under discussion was replaced by a new one erected by Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation, the Miles and Marilyn Kletter Family Foundation, and the Warren and Beverly Geisler Family Foundation.
Another monument was also probably erected in the 1950s. It was situated at the edge of the Jewish cemetery, where the twelve hostages were killed and later the remains of the Jews, killed in Kreidava Gara (Melovaya Gora), were reburied [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. In 2018, it was replaced by a new monument erected by the Simon Mark Lazarus Foundation, the Miles and Marilyn Kletter Family Foundation, and the Warren and Beverly Geisler Family Foundation [Smilovitskii].
An additional monument, commemorating the Jews of Klimavichy (Klimovichi), was erected in Vydrynka (Vydrinka) village.
"Klimovichi,"
Untold Stories - Murder Sites of Jews in Occupied Territories of the USSR (Yad Vashem project), https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/untold-stories/community/14621666.
Shenderovich, Ida, and Alexander Litin. Pomnit’ nel’zia zabyt’. Klimovichi: Katalog evreiskogo kladbishcha (Mogilev: by the authors, 2021), pp. 69, 98, 100 (photos of 1963, 1960s, 1980s).
Smilovitskii, Leonid, "Po sledam evreiskikh kladbishch Belarusi: Klimovichi" Zhurnal-gazeta "Masterskaia," ed. Evgenii Berkovich., https://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=54622., https://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=54622 (accessed January 22, 2024)
Zeltser, Arkadi, Unwelcome Memory: Holocaust Monuments in the Soviet Union, trans. A.S. Brown (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2018), pp.182-183..