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By Alla Pierce
Submitted by Author
Sunday, Mar 21, 2021
"Listen, I recently came across a burial site, not far from here. It is a burial for 10 thousand people killed by Germans. I know you are interested in this topic; let me take you there. It's not far from here".
The young Belarusian guy looked at me questioningly. "I should certainly go," I say in response, "Thanks for letting me know."
"I stumbled upon it by chance. I never knew about that burial ground myself ... The traces of the ditch are still visible ... Can you imagine?"
Then he repeated, shaking his head, "Ten thousand!”
At that time, I didn’t visit that burial site but was keeping it in my mind, and later I went to that mournful place accompanied by a historian, who I happened to know.
Together we went to the small town and stopped by the pine grove. A black obelisk was seen from a distance, and when we got closer, we could also see the still-preserved eerie traces of a ditch. On top of the obelisk, the Star of David was mounted. The Germans had brought Jews from different nearby towns and villages and simply killed them all. All ten thousand.
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| Photo taken by author |
"We should step back. We are standing right on the ditch. They all lie here," I said and retreated hastily, fearing that I am standing over someone's body. The historian, on the contrary, walked along the ditch, examining it.
"It doesn’t look long enough for 10 thousand people ... Although ... they were thrown on top of each other ... Anyway ... 10 thousand?"
Later I found out that the ditch was deep. The next day after the execution, the bodies were covered with lime. Historical documents state that the Germans had brought an entire lime wagon and poured it on top of bodies.
I don’t know how many people were killed there - ten thousand or one thousand, I don't know they were all Jews or also non-Jewish among them, as domestic people stated. What is really important is that they were people. Women, old people, and children among them experiencing a chilling horror.
I stood with my arms wrapped around myself, probably trying to hide from the picture that appeared in front of me - the road filled with people who are being led to slaughter, the screams that merged into one long, incessant death howl, heard far away, and this damned lime ...
Belarus, 2020
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