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1 Execution site(s)
Fyodor T.: “One time I was mistaken for a Jew because I had a dark face and they locked me in the cellar of a bank. I was beaten, but liberated thanks to a woman from my village who spoke German. I saw the Jews who had been gathered in the yard. I think there were children there too. I think these Jews were killed in a gas truck and their corpses buried in a field.”(Witness N°639, interviewed in Klimovichi, on June 16, 2013).
“On November 6-7 1941, the German units surrounded the town of Klimovichi. The German soldiers, following officers orders, dragged the Jewish inhabitants from their houses, and under escort, took them to the old garage buildings. On the way, the Jews were savagely beaten by the Germans. The ones who couldn’t walk were shot.” (Act drawn by the Soviet Extraordinary Commission, in June 1944, RG 22.022M/7021-88/38).
In January 1939, there were 1,693 Jews in the village. There was a Yiddish school until 1938. The majority of the Jews were merchants. The Germans occupied the village on August 10, 1941.
According to different sources, there were 4 executions of Jews in Klimovichi. At the end of August 1941, 13 Jews were arrested, taken to the Jewish cemetery and ordered to dig a pit. They were then shot. The second execution took place on November 6, 1941. Some Jews were sent to work, while the rest were gathered in a garage near the hospital. The Germans took all their valuables. The Jews were then moved near the airport, not far from the village of Dolgaya Gora and were shot by Germans and local policemen. On the same day, the Jews who were sent to work were shot at the same location. According to some sources, between 750 and 900 Jews were killed that day. 80 Jews remained alive following this massacre. They were concentrated in a single house. At the end of November 1941, they were forced to walk to Melovaya Gora, where they were shot. In April 1943, the children from mixed-families were imprisoned by the Germans, and were eventually shot on April 12, 1943.
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