On May 21, 1967, the city of Smolensk dedicated a monument to the victims of the shootings in Vyazovenka on initiative of Jewish war veterans.
Around 13,000 Jews lived in Smolensk before the Second World War. By July 1941, when the city was occupied by the German Wehrmacht, most of the Jews had been able to flee. An advance unit of the SS Einsatzgruppe B (mobile killing squad) reached the city at the end of July 1941; from August 5, the city housed the squad's headquarters. The military administration established a labour camp and in August a ghetto in Sadki, a suburb of Smolensk. Around 2,000 Jews had to live there. On July 15, 1942, German and Lithuanian members of the SS liquidated the ghetto: all of its Jewish residents were asphyxiated in »gas vans« or chased to a pit close to the village of Vyazovenka and shot there.
Members of SS Einsatzgruppe B (mobile killing squad) and Lithuanian helpers shot around 2,000 Jews from Smolensk in the village of Vyazovenka.
On May 21, 1967, the city of Smolensk dedicated a monument on initiative of Jewish war veterans. The insciption on the monument, however, does not mention that the victims were Jews. For several years now, the Jewish community of Smolensk has been organising commemorative ceremonies on July 15, on the anniversary of the ghetto's liquidation and the shootings.
- Name
- Memorial w derewne Wjasowen'ki pri Smolenske
- Address
-
Tabornaya gora (hill)
214005 Smolensk - Phone
- +7 481 265 663 2
- Open
- The monument is accessible at all times.