Obj. ID: 53323 Holocaust Monument at the Killing Site in Lenin, Belarus, 1983
Memorial Name
No official name.
Who is Commemorated?
About 3,000 Jews from the Lenin Ghetto, killed on August 14, 1942.
Description
The monument is erected at the killing site and mass grave of the Lenin Jews on the hill in the direction of the village of Steblavichy (Steblovichi), which currently lies on the northwestern outskirts of Lenin. Originally it had a form of black granite tombstone with an ethnically neutral Russian inscription. Presumably in the 1990s, a plaque with Russian and Hebrew inscriptions was attached to the tomb. It is adorned with the two Stars of David. Behind the monument, there is a composition consisting of several massive boulders.
The tombs territory is paved and surrounded by a fence.
Inscription
On the base, in Russian:
Здесь в г.п. Ленин 14.VIII.1942 г. немецко-фашистские
варвары убили около 3000 мирных граждан, - женщин стариков и детей
из гетто
Люди добрые, помните!
Мы любили жизнь, нашу Родину и Вас, дорогие.
Мы зверски убиты.
Пусть Ваша память сбережет мир!
Translation: Here in the u.s. [urban settlement] of Lenin, on August 14, 1942, the German-Fascist / barbarians murdered about 3,000 peaceful civilians – women, elderly people, and children / from the ghetto / Good people, remember! / We loved life, our Motherland, and You, our beloved ones. / We were brutally murdered. / May your memory cherish peace!
On the plaque (added presumably in the 1990s), in Russian:
Память жертвам фашизма
Translation: Memory to the victims of fascism.
In Hebrew
אל נקמות ה'
ארץ אל תכסי דמך
גלעד של יהודי לנין והסביבה
שנרצחו ונזרקו לקבר אחים זה
ע"י הנאצים ועוזריהם ימ"ש
ביום ב' אלול תש"ב 14.8.1942
יהי זכרם ברוך - ת.נ.צ.ב.ה
נזכור ולא נשכח
ועד יוצאי לנין והסביבה
Translation: The Lord is the God who avenges / Earth, do not cover their blood / A memorial to the Jews of Lenin and the neighborhood / who were murdered and thrown into this mass grave / by the Nazis and their accomplices, may their names be obliterated / on Elul, 2, 5702 August 14, 1942 / May their memory be blessed - may their souls be bound in the bundle of life / We shall remember and never forget / The committee of the Lenin and neighborhood descendants.
Commissioned by
The group of local activists.
Quote from Jewish sources | Bible | Writings | Psalms | Psalms 94:5-6
Quote from Jewish sources | Bible | Writings | Job | Job 16:18 (Earth, do not cover their blood / ארץ אל תכסי דמם)
Hebrew traditional formulas | May their names be obliterated ימש
Hebrew traditional formulas | May their memory be blessed יהי זכרם ברוך
Hebrew traditional formulas | Tantzabah תנצבה
|
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 a stele at the murder site and mass grave on the hill in the direction of the village of St'ablovichy (Steblovichi) was erected [Botvinnik 219].
In November 1982, the mass grave near the stele was desecrated by unknown vandals looking for "Jewish gold". It was decided to cover the grave. The project was taken up by a group of activists consisting of Michael Menkin; his father, the former partisan Yankel Menkin, whose wife was a native of Lenin; the former partisan Tsiklevich, another native of the village; and Vladimir Boyarin, a local schoolteacher. Thanks to their efforts, the grave was covered with concrete slabs. Thereafter, the monument under discussion was erected at the graveside in September 1983. The Soviet authorities had forbidden to mention the ethnicity of victims in the inscription on the monument. Presumably in the 1990s, a plaque with a Hebrew inscription and two Stars of David was attached to the monument [Yad Vashem: Untold Stories]. Today the monument is a place of commemorative activities.
The 1973 stele located nearby was replaced with a sculpture of the Mourning Mother in 1989.
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].
Botvinnik, Marat, "Pam'atniki Genotsida Evreev Belarusi" (Minsk: Belaruskaia navuka, 2000), p.218.
For the original images, see
Wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Ghetto_Lenin,, Avner&title=Special:MediaSearch&type=image.
Il'ya, Al'tman (ed.), Kholokost na territorii SSSR (Moskva: ROSSPEN, 2011), pp.515-516.
"Lenin,"
Untold Stories - Murder Sites of Jews in Occupied Territories of the USSR (Yad Vashem project), https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/untold-stories/community/14622463.