The village of Polykovichi – a place of mass shootings
Polykovichi is one of the mass execution sites of the Mogilev Jews in the autumn of 1941.
In the autumn of 1943, after the defeat of the fascist army at Stalingrad, the fascists started to secretly hide the traces of crimes in the villages of Polykovichi and Novopashkovo: human remains were removed from graves and anti-tank ditches, burnt and blown up. Cremation of corpses was carried out in specially adapted ovens and on specially built large wooden towers, on which corpses were stacked in layers, doused with tar and set on fire. In Pashkovo, the burning of corpses lasted over a month. The locals nicknamed this crematorium the lard burners. During exhumation, the remains were thoroughly searched for jewellery, gold ornaments and dental crowns. Then the graves were turned over several times, disguising them with crops. The work crews who did this and bystanders were also killed.
The investigation of the crimes committed by the occupation authorities in Mogilev and the Mogilev region was carried out by the Mogilev Regional Commission, which co-operated with the Extraordinary State Commission for the Detection and Investigation of Crimes and Accounting of Damage Caused by the Nazi Occupiers. The population was questioned, witnesses and participants of the extermination of people were interrogated. Some mass grave sites were partially exhumed in order to find out who was buried there, to determine the reasons for their deaths and to estimate the number of victims.
As a result of the investigations, the commission found that up to 30,000 civilians and up to 40,000 prisoners of war were exterminated during the occupation of Mogilev and its neighbourhood. In total, the Nazis shot 71,756 people in the region, including 5,770 women, 2,506 children; 17 were hanged, and 1,286 were burned. 20,920 people were sent to Germany (voluntarily or forcibly). And according to district acts a total of 152,842 people died in the region.
At present, the number of Jews who perished during the German occupation of Mogilev and the Mogilev region is estimated by various historians from 7 to 20 thousand, and there are similar discrepancies in the estimation of the number of Jews who perished throughout Belarus.
*********************
From the memoirs of Lyubov Naimark.
My family moved to the ghetto on the Dubrovenka River by order of the Germans in September 1941. The ghetto was very crowded, 40-50 people lived in each small wooden hut. We were not provided with food. We were not allowed to go outside the ghetto. I didn't look Jewish. Taking advantage of this, I left the ghetto and got food for my family from friends. In the autumn of 1941, when it was already very cold, the Germans came to the ghetto in several cars, my seven-year-old daughter started screaming, "I don't want to die!" - She snatched a hidden bottle of perfume from me and started handing it to a German. I went over and explained to the German that I was Russian and had come here by mistake. He thanked me for the perfume and let me and my daughter out. This time we went not home, but to our relatives, the Gusarevichs, who lived in Lupolovo. They were very happy for us. From them I learnt that all the Jews were shot somewhere near Polykovichi.
In the autumn of 1942 I was arrested again, someone told that I was a Jew. I was taken to the so-called "Russian SD" on Maloe-Zavalye-Street. Both Russians and Germans interrogated me for a long time, but I persisted, and my acquaintances confirmed that I was Russian, and I was released. Soon after that I joined the partisans" (Levin V., Melzer D. Black Book with Red Pages. - USA, Baltimore: IA "Vestnik", 1996. - p. 295-296).