Obj. ID: 34369  Holocaust Monument at the Killing Site in Myadzyel (Myadel), Belarus, 1993

Myadzyel (Myadel) was occupied by the Germans on July 2, 1941 [Al'tman, 633]. "The occupiers issued a slew of anti-Jewish decrees, including the requirement to wear a yellow Star of David on the clothing, a prohibition on leaving the town, and the imposition of forced labor. In September 1941, the Germans shot a group of 35-50 local Jews near the Mkhi Forest. In November that year, a ghetto was established [...]. 

In August 1942, rumors began to circulate about the impending liquidation of the Miadzioł Nowy [today's Myadzyel (Myadel)] Ghetto. In September that year, some 70-80 Jews escaped from the ghetto into the forests. On September 21, the Germans and the Belarusian auxiliary policemen rounded up all the remaining Jews of Miadzioł Nowy [today's Myadzyel (Myadel)] and nearby Miadzioł Stary, separated fifty "specialists" (skilled artisans) and their families, and then shot seventy people in the Bor Forest. Of those Jews who had managed to flee, some twenty were tracked down in the forests and shot by the Germans and the local policemen over the following days.

Ninety Jewish workers from Miadzioł Nowy and Miadzioł Stary remained in the ghetto. In October 1942, Yakov Segalchik, a local Jew who was serving with the Soviet partisans at the time, entered the ghetto. On behalf of his unit, he urged the "specialists" to flee with him and join the partisans. Only when Segalchik began to speak Yiddish did they believe him and agree to flee. Not all the fugitives joined the partisan unit; some crossed the front lines to the Soviet side, while others tried to survive in the forest on their own, having established a family camp. Of the latter group, many were eventually killed by Polish nationalist partisans from the AK (Home Army)" [Yad Vashem: Untold Stories].

The commemoration of the Myadzyel (Myadel) Jews began in 1993 when the memorial stele was erected in the Mkhi Forest by Israeli relatives of the victims. The present memorial commemorates the Jews of Myadzyel (Myadel) who were killed in September 1942, and, too, was erected by Israeli relatives of the victims in 1993. It stands on the shore of Lake Batoryn, not far from the present-day Minsk-Naroch road, a mile south of the town, and serves as a place for commemorative ceremonies. By the side of the road, there is a stone pointing to this memorial.

Probably in the 2000s, a memorial was erected in the Jewish Cemetery in Myadzyel (Myadel). It commemorates Holocaust victims from Myadzyel (Myadel), Jewish soldiers, and Jewish partisans.