Tragic pages in history. Holocaust of Logoisk

5 ноября 2020

It is very difficult to accept the fact that someone does not appreciate a peaceful and quiet life on their land. After all, in almost every Belarusian family, there are those who have gone through the hardships of war, who have faced the hunger and grief that the war brings.

In Belarus, more than eight hundred thousand Jews were tortured and killed during the Holocaust. One and a half kilometers from Logoisk, there is a mass grave of civilians who were shot and killed.

August 1941. Only a few weeks have passed since the occupation of Minsk by the Germans. It was a typical scenario for German invaders. A special commission arrived at the place. The local police drove the Jews out of their homes, drove them across the field. They were women, children and old men who were to be torn apart by a bloodthirsty beast.

The Jewish inhabitants of Logoisk did not know where the fascists led them. People were digging their own graves with their own hands. There are no exact figures for how many people were shot here, but the sources that are now being collected by public figures show that at least 1,100 people were killed. This is one third of the pre-war population in Logoisk. The tragedy of the city and the tragedies of individual families are intertwined here under a layer of land.

Svetlana Gamezo, Acting Director of the Logoisk Museum of Local History: "The Khodosevich family realized that there would be trouble and they decided to hide their neighbor - an 11-year-old girl, Tamara Ziserman, who temporarily lived in Logoisk with her mother and grandmother. Her mother and grandmother were shot, as well as other Jewish residents. And the girl was hiding in a barn and cellar.

Tamara survived. Peter and Janina Khodasevichs were arrested in 1943 for their association with guerrillas. They were shot together with their little daughter Valya at the site of the mass death of Jews. For another three years the bodies of tortured and killed Jews, Belarusians, partisans and Red Army soldiers were brought here.

Dmitry Imkhovik, chairman of the board of the Memory in Hearts NGO: "The creation of a good memorial complex here will also contribute to patriotic education and raise the authority of our state even higher".

The existing burial record contains the names of 25 people, not 1100. In spring, activists intend to carry out excavations to establish the exact scale of Logoisk tragedy. In addition, they want to establish a memorial complex at Ivanovshchina, which will be a worthy tribute to the memory of the innocent inhabitants of Logoisk and the village of Gayna. Everyone can help to create the memorial.