KRICHEV
Pre-1941: Krichev, town and raion center, Mogilev oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Kritschew, Rear Area, Army Group Center (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Mitte); post-1991: Krychau, raen center, Mahiliou voblasts’, Republic of Belarus
Krichev is situated about 95 kilometers (59 miles) east-southeast of Mogilev. According to the 1939 census, there were 1,362 [End Page 1689] Jews living in Krichev. They made up 8.5 percent of the total population.
German armed forces occupied the town on July 17, 1941, approximately four weeks after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22. In the interim, part of the Jewish population was able to evacuate to the east. Men of eligible age were called up to the Red Army.
During the occupation, which lasted from July 17, 1941, to September 30, 1943, a German commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) was in control of the town. The Ortskommandantur set up a town authority and a police force composed of a number of local residents. In October 1941, Ortskommandantur (V) 256, subordinated to Security Division 221, was based in Krichev.
Shortly after the occupation began, the town authority, on the orders of the Ortskommandantur, organized the registration and marking of the Jewish population. Jews were also forced to perform heavy physical labor, such as road repair work.
In August or September 1941, the Germans established an open ghetto in Krichev, moving all the Jews (about 80 families in total) into several houses next to the church. The Jews had to wear patches bearing a Star of David and were forbidden to walk freely about the town.1
German security forces liquidated the Krichev ghetto in November 1941. According to the records of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), 130 Jews were shot near a flax-processing mill, and 60 to 80 Jews were killed on the grounds of a cement factory.2 However, it is likely that in total more than 300 Jews were murdered in Krichev. The mass shootings were carried out by a detachment of Einsatzkommando 8, with the help of the Belorussian local police.
In November 1941, in the Krichev raion, 122 Jews were killed in the village of Moliatichi and 30 Jews in the village of Antonovka.3 According to an Einsatzgruppen report, in November 1941, several Aktions were conducted in Krichev and the surrounding area for reasons of “security and order,” which resulted in the shooting of 1,231 Jews of both sexes.4
SOURCES
Publications mentioning the ghetto in Krichev include the following: David Meltser and Vladimir Levin, eds., The Black Book with Red Pages (Tragedy and Heroism of Belorussian Jews) (Cockeysville, MD: VIA Press, 2005), pp. 266–267; Vladimir Adamushko et al., eds., Handbuch der Haftstätten für die Zivilbevölkerung auf dem besetzten Territorium von Belarus 1941–1944 (Minsk: State Committee for Archives and Documentary Collections of the Republic of Belarus, 2001), p. 140; Marat Botvinnik, Pamiatniki genotsida evreev Belarusi (Minsk: Belaruskaia Navuka, 2000), pp. 300–301; Emanuil Ioffe, Belorusskie evrei: Tragediia i geroizm, 1941–1945 (Minsk: Arti-Feks, 2003), p. 117; and Rossiiskaia Evreiskaia Entsiklopediia (Mos-cow: Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Jewish Encyclopedia Research Center, “Epos,” 2004), 5:208–209.
Relevant documentation can be found in the following archives: BA-BL (R 58); BA-L; BA-MA; GARF (7021-88-41); NARB (861-1-9); USHMM; and YVA.
NOTES
1. “From the testimonies of witnesses Pechkurova, Yakushovka, Kurbako, and Gritova,” in Meltser and Levin, The Black Book with Red Pages, pp. 266–267.
2. GARF, 7021-88-41, pp. 3–4; NARB, 861-1-9, p. 239. A list of 34 deceased Jews of the town can be found in GARF, 7021-88-41, pp. 32–33.
3. GARF, 702-88-41, pp. 6–7 (Moliatichi); p. 8 (Antonovka); pp. 34–36 (Moliatichi). The shootings in Antonovka occurred on November 14 and 17, 1941.
4. BA-BL, R 58/219, Ereignismeldung UdSSR no. 148, December 19, 1941.
