Klintsy | Bryansk

From the family archives. Raisa’s non-Jewish father and his friends © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum From the family archives. Raisa’s grand-father © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum From the family archives. Raisa, a child born to a mixed marriage, during the war. She was saved by a local policeman. © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum Family picture (from left to right): Alexander Paskov, his mother, his aunt Liza Shifrina with her daughter Raia, Lyona and Raia Levant. Liza Shifrina with her daughter were murdered in Klintsy. © Alexander Paskov’s family archives, www.centropa.org / Raisa A., a half- Jew, born in 1933, was saved by a policeman during the gathering of women and half- Jewish children. It was the same policeman who announced that her mother was killed only because she was a Jew. © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum Yevgueniy S., born in 1928, went to bring some food or to barter in the Banny hamlet where the Jews had been confined to an open ghetto. © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum Yevgueniy S., born in 1928, went to the killing site after the shooting. The pit was covered and there was a pile of clothes dragging nearby. © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum Yahad’s team with a witness near the execution site © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum Yahad’s research team during the interwiev © Jordi Lagoutte - Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Klintsy

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1943
Number of victims:
3000

Witness interview

Yevgueni S., born in 1928, remembered: « In the beginning, the Jews were able to live normally as they were promised to be resettled in Israel. But, I think, some of them suspected the truth as they were very anxious. Shortly after that, all the Jews were resettled in Russian houses in the hamlet of Banny. I knew that because my relatives were forced to move from Banny into a Jewish house. Only 150 Jewish special workers remained living in the town because Germans used them for their services.” (Witness n°510, interviewed in Klintsy, on May 24, 2015)

Soviet archives

« First of all, Hitler’s men organized bloody massacres of the Jews. The whole Jewish population was registered and placed in a separate area called the “ghetto.” On the streets, without any shame, people hung the rules of behavior for the Jews. It was forbidden for them to communicate with Russians. Moreover, they didn’t even have the right to greet them. Every Jew had to wear a distinguishing yellow mark on the chest, on the back and on the left sleeve. In December 1941, the bloody massacres started. In all, according to incomplete data, about 10 000 civil inhabitants of Klintsy was shot, including more than 3000 Jews.” [Act of Soviet extraordinary commission drawn up on October 3, 1945, RG-22.002M.7021- 85/5]

Historical note

Klintsy is situated about 150km southwest of Bryansk. According to the census, there were 6,505 Jews (16% of the total population) living in the town. Most of them lived off of trade. There was a Yiddish elementary school and an evening school for adults. The town was occupied by German forces on August 20, 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The anti-Jewish measures started from the beginning of the German occupation. According to the archives and Yahad field research, all the Jews were confined to a ghetto, which was situated in the hamlet of Banny. According to Martin Dean, the very first Aktion took place in September 1941, when 165 Jews and 7 communists were shot by a mobile squad of Einsatzgruppen. The second Aktion took place in December 1941. According to witness n°510, the Jews were shot in the outskirts of the village, near today’s brick factory. Children were thrown alive or knocked out with the butt of a submachine gun. 150 remaining workers who the Germans let stay were the last to be exterminated, but nobody knows where. In all, more then 3 000 Jews were murdered in Klintsy. Yahad’s fieldwork confirmed that women and half-Jewish children were also executed, but separate from the other Jews, which was typical in the investigated region.

 

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