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1 Execution site(s)
Anatoliy P., born in 1928: “On the way to carry out forced labor, I saw smoke going up into the sky and someone pouring petrol onto the corpses in order to burn them. I guess they did it to hide the traces of their crimes. When we were taken to the village of Voronino, we were very frightened because we thought that they would burn us too. We decided that if they tried to do that, we would break the wooden planks of the building in order to escape. Even if they shot us on the spot, it would still be better than being burned alive.” (Testimony N°680, interviewed in Sapezhinka, on July 15, 2013)
Sapezhinka is located about 50 km north of Mogilev. The village was founded as a Jewish agricultural colony. In 1898, 264 Jews lived in the village. The majority of them lived off agriculture. The village was occupied by the Germans at the end of July 1941.
As it was a Jewish agricultural colony, almost all residents were Jews and there was no need to register them. The extermination started right after the occupation and was conducted over the course of two Aktions. The first one was carried out on August 28, 1941 against 27 Jewish men who were shot on the outskirts of the village. The remaining 55-70 Jewish women with children and elderly people were locked inside two big houses for a week. One week later, they were moved to the Bykhov ghetto where they were murdered with other inmates. For more information about the execution of Jews in Bykhov, please, refer to the corresponding profile.
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