Obj. ID: 56416  Holocaust Monument dedicated to Jews of Mahilou (Mogilev) between the villages of Starae Pashkava (Staroye Pashkovo) and Novae Pashkava (Novoye Pashkovo), Belarus, 1950s

Mahilou (Mogilev) was occupied by the Germans on July 26, 1941. About 6,500-7,500 Jews from the city did not escape the Nazi occupation. From its first days, the fascists carried out discriminatory measures against the Jewish citizens: they were forbidden to leave their houses after 17:00; pledged to wear yellow patches, were forbidden to walk on the sidewalk, receive medical care, trade, etc [Al'tman]. 

Also in August, the Mahilou (Mogilev) ghetto was established on Grazhdanskaya Street. In September, it was relocated to another part of the town close to the river. During the same period Einsatzkommando 8B, whose headquarters was in the city, caught 113 Jews trying to flee Mahilou (Mogilev) and murdered them [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].

Most of the local Jews were killed in two major murder operations in October 1941. The Jewish "specialists" (skilled workers) were spared in these massacres and put into a labor camp at the Dimitrov factory on the western outskirts of the city. The inmates of this camp, including those who had been transferred from Slonim at the end of May 1942, were murdered between October 1941 and September 1943. In September 1943 120 camp inmates were transferred to Minsk [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].

There are several monuments commemorating the Holocaust victims from Mahilou (Mogilev). The monument under discussion was erected in 1950s in a field between the villages of Starae (Staroye) and Novae Pashkava (Novoye Pashkovo), northwest of Mahilou (Mogilev), 500 meters to the right of the road connecting the villages. This was where the Jews of Mahilou (Mogilev), who were murdered near Kazimirauka (Kazimirovka) village, were buried [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. Today it is the place of commemorative ceremonies.

Another monument dates back to 1953-1954. It was erected by the survivors and relatives of the victims in the Jewish cemetery, where the first massacre of Mahilou (Mogilev) Jews took place on October 2-3, 1941. The bodies of Jews shot near Palykhovichy (Polykovichi) village and in other places were transferred there [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. 

In 1968 a memorial mound was erected in the village of Palykhovichy (Polykovichi), about 200-300 meters from the village's central street [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories]. 

In the early 2000s, a monument was erected on the northwestern outskirts of Kazimirauka (Kazimirovka) on Rovchakov Street, on the right side of the road (300 meters from the road to Minsk). This monument is located at the edge of the forest where the Jews of Mahilou (Mogilev) were shot. [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].

On November 12, 2008, the monument in memory of the local Jews was erected in Mahilou (Mogilev), at Lazarenko Street [Wikipedia].

Two simple monuments were also erected in the Lyubuzh, southwest of Mahilou (Mogilev), near Vialikaia Barouka [Bolshaya Borovka] village. One is in the forest 300 meters to the left of the road leading from Vitebsk Avenue in Mahilou (Mogilev) to Vialikaia Barouka (Bolshaya Borovka), near the village cemetery. The other monument is located 250 meters to the right of the road connecting Vitebsk Avenue and Vialikaia Barouka (Bolshaya Borovka) [Yad Vashem: The Untold Stories].