Zhlobin | Gomel

/ / The Jewish cemetery of Streshin. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Ambiance in Zhlobin. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The location of the synagogue in Streshin. The building no longer exists. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum An old prewar Jewish house, Streshin. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Andrey I. saw Jewish women forced to work on the railway line. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Emma G. recognized Jews she knew when she saw the shooting. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Raisa M. saw the shooting of the Jews from the roof of her house. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The Yahad team during a witness interview. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Nikolay R., born in 1928, explains to the Yahad team the day he saw the Jews being assembled. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The location of the former ghetto in Streshin. All the Jews from the Streshin ghetto were killed in Zhlobin. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The meeting point where the Jews were assembled before being taken to the shooting. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The location of the mass shooting of Jews from Zhlobin and Streshin near the village of Lebedevka. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum At the location of this house, there was a vacant plot where the Jews from Zhlobin were shot. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews of Zhlobin and Streshin in Zhlobin

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Vacant plot / Field
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
About 1600

Witness interview

Emma G., born in 1927: "There were many Jews in town. We went to the Jewish shops regularly. They lived on Pervomayskaya, Uritskogo, and Shoseynaya streets and went to the synagogue. The Jewish school and the Belarusian school were in the same building. Anyone who wanted to could study at the Jewish school. All the education was in the Jewish language. In my class there were 6 Jewish boys and 5 Jewish girls. I remember in particular my friends Lilia Finkilstein and Sonia Evchtein." (Witness N°874, interviewed in Zhlobin, on September 30, 2014).

Historical note

Zhlobin is a city located 80 km northwest of Gomel. It is a district center, as it was before the war. According the 1939 census, 3709 Jews lived in Zhlobin, making up more than 19% of the total population. The Jews mostly lived in the city center and were storekeepers. There was a synagogue and a Jewish elementary school. The city was occupied by German forces at the beginning of August 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Before the German arrival, an significant part of the Jewish population managed to escape, mostly on foot. Zhlobin was the seat of an important police station where there were about 150 men. At the end of 1941, 31 Jews were shot in town by a squad of Einsatzgruppe B, accused of being saboteurs.

In October 1941, 2 ghettos were established. The first was in a school dormitory. The second was in different huts near the railway line and near the bakery. Jews from surrounding towns and villages were also brought to the Zhlobin ghetto. Notably, Jews from Streshin, a big village situated south of Zhlobin, were moved from the Streshin ghetto to Zhlobin on March 30, 1942.

Early in the morning of April 12, 1942, the Germans, assisted by local policemen, loaded the Jews into several trucks and drove them 1 km away between the city and the village of Lebedevka. The Jews had to undress and were killed in a pit dug in a field by local villagers. The police brought the victims to the edge of the pit, where there was a plank, and shot them.

The killing of the Jews of Zhlobin continued from April 12 to April 15, 1942. The Jews of Streshin were also killed at the same location. According to an eyewitness interviewed by Yahad, the Jews were also taken by trucks and shot at the crossroads of Pervomayskaya Street and Kozlova Street in Zhlobin. It is estimated that more 1600 Jews were killed in all. More than 10 Jewish women with children from mixed marriages were also killed.

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