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1 Execution site(s)
Viktor K., born in 1931: "[…] The Germans said to me, ’look how the Jews are being killed, so forget any ideas you have about joining the partisans, or you’ll be next’… I witnessed the execution of about 30 wagons of Jews…Yes, 52,000 people were killed there – Jews, as well as all those who were put in the Bronnaya Gora camp (people who were suspected of having been in touch with the partisans). They were forced to dig the mass graves and then they were all killed (including the Jews) […]." (Eyewitness N°139, interwieved in Bronnaya Gora, on April 8, 2009)
"The rail cars full of people were unloaded one after another. The people were forced to undress completely and put their clothes in a pile. They were then taken to the pits through a passage lined with barbed wire, and were ordered to lie face down in the pits." [Act N°1, established by Soviet commission, RG-22.002M/7021-83/9]
"My company members had formed a path on the railway which led to the grave where the execution took place. The grave was sloped on one side. A wagon subsequently arrived next to the grave. It was still locked. I could clearly see the wagon being opened and I saw Jews of every gender and every age standing tightly packed inside. The Jews had to take their clothes off in the wagon. I mean they had to take all their clothes off until they were completely naked. When they opened the wagon, they removed all the bodies of people who had probably died of suffocation. As they climbed out of the wagon, the Jews were herded to the grave through a path which was formed by the members of my company. The Jews were very calm as they moved towards the execution site. There was no attempt to escape. I saw about five or six SD members with submachine guns." [Deposition of Alfred B., a police battaillon n°320 member, made on December 1, 1960, B 162/7841 (204 AR-Z 439/67)]
Bronnaya Gora is located 125km (78 miles) northeast of Brest. On June 24, 1941, the village was occupied by the German army. At the beginning of May 1943, a concentration camp was created near the railway station.
The anti- Jewish Aktions in Bronnaya Gora were carried out by SS and SD units. As the mass graves were being dug in the middle of June of 1942, Germans began to transfer Soviet citizens by train from different places such as Bereza, Brest, Dohitzin, Yanov, Horodetz and other places in Belarus, to the station Bronnaya Gora. From June to November 1942, 50,000 civilians were executed by Germans.
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