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

Pre-1941: Bezhanitsy, town and raion center, Kalinin oblast’, RSFSR; 1941–1944: Beshanizy, Rear Area, Army Group North (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Nord); post-1991: Bezhanitsy, Pskov oblast’, Russian Federation

Bezhanitsy is located 75 kilometers (47 miles) north-northwest of Velike Luki. According to the 1939 census, there were only 24 Jews living in Bezhanitsy.

German forces captured Bezhanitsy on July 18, 1941, almost one month after their invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22. During this period, some Jews managed to evacuate to the east, and the eligible males were required to report for military service. Only some of the pre-war Jewish population remained in the town at the start of the occupation.

During the occupation, which lasted until July 1944, a German military Kommandantur ran the town. The German Kommandantur formed a town administration and a police force (Ordnungsdienst), staffed by local residents.

Soon after the occupation of the town, the German Kommandantur ordered the town administration to organize the registration and marking of the Jews, as well as their use for various kinds of forced labor. In October 1941, all the remaining Jews in Bezhanitsy were rounded up and moved into a ghetto, consisting of an unheated house whose windows had been smashed, which was surrounded by a fence. The prisoners did not receive anything to eat for many days. The ghetto existed for several weeks, and then it was liquidated by shooting all the Jews. First 10 people were selected to dig two large graves. Then they were shot into the graves, which were filled in by the next group of 10. This was repeated until all the Jews had been shot. According to one source, 120 Jews were shot in total. This figure is considerably overstated. However, some Jewish refugees from other places likely were among the victims.¹