1 Execution site(s)
Ielena K., born in 1930: "The local Jews were killed sometime in August 1941. I didn’t see the execution myself, but people spoke about it. In the fall, a group of Jews were brought here by the Germans. As far as I remember, they were Polish Jews, they spoke Polish. There were only Jewish men. They were placed with the local villagers, two Jews per house, on average. I don’t know why, but ten Jewish men were put in our house. As we didn’t have enough room, they all slept on the floor. Some of these Jews were very smart. I remember one of them could read stars and predict snow. They would receive food provisions, and would share with us, as we were poor and didn’t have much to eat. They were religious. I saw them praying in the corner of the room. During the day, they were taken out for forced labor, piling wooden planks and paving the roads, and in the evening, they would go from house to house and offer to make clothes to earn some extra money. Life was very difficult for them, for all of us, but for them it was worse.” (Witness n°201B, interviewed in Logishin, on August 12, 2009)
"In late June 1941, the village of Logishin was occupied by the German-Fascist invaders. From the very first day of the occupation, the German punitive units began to commit atrocities against the peaceful civilians of Logishin and the Soviet activists. I personally witnessed the atrocities committed by the Fascists. In August 1941, a German punitive squad numbering as many as fifty men arrived in our village of Logishin. They looted on a massive scale and shot a great number of [people] of Jewish nationality. A total of 500 Jewish people were shot by the German squad in two days. The Germans confiscated [the victims’] best clothes and valuables." [Deposition given by a local villager, Nikolai M., born in 1889, to the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (GARF) on April 19, 1945; GARF 7021-90-29/Copy USHMM RG22-002M]
Logishin is a village located 170 km (105 mi) east of Brest and 20 km (12 mi) north of Pinsk. The first records of the Jewish community date back to the 17th century. From the 16th to the 18th century the village was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, before being taken over by the Russian Empire in 1793. According to the 1897 census, there were 1,578 Jews in Logishin, making up 48% of the town’s total population. During the interwar period, the town was under Polish rule.
In 1921, Jews represented only about 8% of the total population, with some 168 living in the town. The main occupation of the Logishin Jews was trade, with many of them being artisans and skilled workers. During this period several political groups and movements, such as the Zionists, were active. In September 1939, it was taken over by the Soviet Union. It is estimated that circa. 500 Jews, including refugees from occupied Poland, were living in Logishin on the eve of the war.
Lohishin was occupied by German forces on June 27, 1941. Shortly after the occupation all the remaining Jews were marked with yellow armbands. They continued to live in their homes until August 1941 when they were executed. According to local testimonies there was no ghetto, neither was it mentioned in the archives. On the day of the execution (the exact date is impossible to confirm, but according to some sources, it was on August 10) all the Jews were gathered and taken 300m east of the catholic cemetery. Once there, the Jews were shot in groups of twenty on the edge of the pit. According to eyewitnesses of the execution, they were shot fully clothed. The shooting was carried out by a SS unit, most probably from Pinsk, although the local chief of police took an active part in finishing off those who were still alive after the execution. Today, there is a memorial at the shooting site. Sometime after the execution, in the fall of 1941, a group of Jewish men were brought to Logishin. They were placed with the locals and used as forced labor for different jobs, such as paving the streets with wooden planks. By 1943 they had disappeared. It was impossible to establish what happened to them exactly, but they were not shot in the vicinity.
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