Obj. ID: 9391 Old Holocaust Memorial I at the Killing Site in Orsha, Belarus, 1950s (?)
Memorial name:
No official name.
Who/What is Commemorated?
2,900 Jewish children of the Orsha Ghetto, killed on November 26-27, 1941.
Description
The monument was erected at the killing site and mass grave, near the old Jewish cemetery. It was shaped like a lying slab with a memorial plaque that bore a Russian ethnically neutral inscription. The territory of the monument was surrounded by a fence.
Inscription
In Russian
Здесь
похоронены
советские
граждане,
погибшие от рук
немецко-фашистских
захватчиков
26-27.XI.1941 г.
Translation: Here / are buried / Soviet / citizens / who died at the hands / of the German-fascist / invaders / on November 26-27, 1941.
Commissioned by
Victims' relatives.
5 image(s) items per page
The fascists entered Orsha on July 16, 1941 [Al'tman, 698]. When the occupation regime in the town had been firmly established, there was a flurry of anti-Jewish decrees. In September 1941, the Germans created a ghetto [jewishgen.org]. The Jews of Orsha were killed in several Aktions [Al'tman, 698-700].
The present monument was erected presumably in the 1950s near the Jewish cemetery, at the killing site and mass grave of 2,900 Jewish children from the Orsha Ghetto. They were killed on November 26-27, 1941, during the liquidation of the ghetto. Their parents were killed 150 meters from that place [izvezda.by]. On their mass grave, there are two monuments - a stele and a boulder. The stele was established in 1968, while the date of the boulder's erection is unknown.
In 2014, with the support of the Lazarus Foundation, the monument under discussion was replaced by a new one [Belarus Holocaust Memorial Project].
"Holocaust in Belorussia," jewishgen.org, https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/belarus/bel178.html (accessed March 24, 2025)
Il'ya, Al'tman (ed.), Kholokost na territorii SSSR (Moskva: ROSSPEN, 2011), pp.698-700.
Marat, Botvinnik, Pam'atniki Genotsida Evreev Belarusi (Minsk: Belaruskaia navuka, 2000), pp.176-177.
"Orsha,"
Belarus Holocaust Memorial Project, https://www.belarusmemorials.com/memorials/vitsyebsk/orsha/.
"Pam'atnyi znak evreiskim d'et'am iz Orshanskogo getto," izvezda.by, https://izvezda.by/ru/monuments-ru/getElement/6077/ (accessed March 20, 2025)