The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

Pre-1941: Zembin, village, Borisov raion, Minsk oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Sembin, Rayon Borissow, Rear Area, Army Group Center (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Mitte); post-1991: Zembin, Borisau raen, Minsk voblasts’, Republic of Belarus

Zembin is located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) northeast of Minsk. In 1926, there were 838 Jews out of 1,199 inhabitants of the village (69.9 percent).

German armed forces occupied Zembin on June 30, 1941. With the exception of the Shifrin family (with many children), who traveled to the east a few days before the Germans arrived, most Jews found themselves under German occupation. Some families with more than 20 carts fled to the Berezina River but became encircled by the rapidly advancing German spearheads and were all forced to return to Zembin. Because there was shooting on the streets that night, some of the inhabitants decided to hide near the swamp, but two days later they also returned to the village. One week after the Germans arrived, the Jews were ordered to wear distinguishing marks on their chests and back: a yellow circle 10 centimeters (4 inches) in diameter. They were also forbidden to communicate with non-Jews.¹ A police force was formed in Zembin, headed by Vasiliy Kharitonovich (chief of police) and Feofil Kabakov, his deputy.²

In mid-July 1941, houses on Gatskaia and Raboche-Krestianskaia Streets, not far from the Jewish cemetery, were enclosed with barbed wire, and a ghetto was formed. More than 900 people were confined in the ghetto. The Jews were compelled to perform a variety of jobs meticulously, without pay and without questioning the orders given to them. They were used for collecting garbage, cleaning the area, loading and unloading fuel, and doing other menial tasks. The Germans had no long-term plans for the ghetto in Zembin but simply used it as a place to gather and contain the Jews before exterminating them. In mid-August, the German authorities chose 18 of the strongest men to dig a pit 800 meters (about half a mile) outside Zembin at a place called Zagornoe, ostensibly as a dump for useless military equipment. The pit was 46 meters long and 3 meters wide (about 151 by 10 feet). This task took several days to complete; however, the earthen stairs leading down into the pits aroused suspicion.³

In the early morning of August 18, 1941, policemen Gnot and Golub went through the ghetto and declared that according to a German order all the Jews were to gather at the marketplace. This was done under the pretense of checking documents and resettling the people from Zembin. When the Jews had gathered at the predetermined place, Gendarmes with dogs encircled them. Policemen organized the prisoners into columns and led them into the forest. The guards demanded order and shouted and hit those who stepped out of line. Not far from the forest, behind which was the pit, the column stopped, and people were ordered to kneel; after that, they were permitted to sit down to “rest.” At first, 20 of the healthiest men were led away. There were few men in the ghetto, because the majority had been mobilized into the Red Army. Shots were heard. Then one by one, groups of 15 to 20 people were taken away and led to the pit. A young teacher shouted: “Don’t cry, these are fascists! Either way they will have to pay, our people will avenge us!” She was among the first killed. Families sat together in small groups, planning to die together. People were ordered to undress and lie down in the pit in line, then were shot. Among the victims was a cadet from the Military Aviation College who came to Zembin before the war to visit relatives.⁴

According to the testimony of Rema Asinovskaya-Khodasevich, people instinctively crept away from the edge of the field where they were sitting and waiting for execution, hoping to avoid being the next group selected to die. The German translator Lutske shouted: “Ten people! Not everyone will be killed, examinations are conducted there, don’t panic!” A sick old man named Shenderov, who was brought with the help of his relatives, died from a heart attack due to anxiety before his turn came.⁵

Only two children, both Khasia Khodasevich’s, were spared, supposedly because they came from a mixed marriage. Following her mother’s advice, the elder child took her four-year-old brother by the hand and approached the German officer who was in charge of the execution. The girl said that she was in the crowd of Jews by accident. The officer consulted David Ehof, an ethnic German (Volksdeutscher) who was formerly a teacher of German in Zembin and later became the chief of police in Borisov, and demanded that he confirm what the child was saying. Ehof answered in the affirmative, and the children were sent to a car. One boy, a classmate of theirs, ran behind them and begged: “Remka, tell them that I’m your brother, that I’m Russian!” But he was seized and thrown into the pit. According to the testimony of Stanislav Turchinovich, afterwards the guards ordered local Belorussians to bury the corpses and fill in the grave. When [End Page 1749] the work was almost completed, an old Jewish woman who had been missed initially was brought in and executed. The pit was dug out again, and she was placed inside. The Belorussians feared that the Germans would kill them because they were witnesses, but the Germans let them go home.⁶

That day more than 750 people were murdered, including more than 250 children.⁷ The Aktion was conducted by the chief of the Borisov SD, Hauptsturmführer Werner Schönemann, Gestapo men Berg and Walther, the commandant in Borisov, Scherer, and the commandant in Zembin, Ilek. The policemen Rabetski, Kursevich, Golub, Glot, Deshkovich, Orehov, and Kontur, as well as the Oniskevich brothers—who received copious amounts of alcohol—a lso took an active role in the massacre.⁸

In its own report, Einsatzgruppe B claimed that it had received “repeated complaints … that all the Jews there were working against German instructions” and that many had recently arrived from elsewhere. In postwar testimony, however, a member of the Einsatzgruppe, Willy Kremers, noted that in Zembin there were no attempts by the Jews to flee. Nevertheless, the Einsatzgruppe report concluded: “in order to prevent any further opposition, a number of Jews were rendered harmless.”⁹

Zembin was liberated on June 30, 1944. In August, the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) for the Borisov raion was able to confirm the murder of only 5 Jews in Zembin: Gil and Liba Beneson, Meer and Haia Kats, and Fania Harik. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, through the efforts of the historical-educational society Svet Menory, 222 surnames of Jews who were killed in Zembin were established.