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

[End Page 1790] Pre-1941: Dukhovshchina, town and raion center, Smolensk oblast’, RSFSR; 1941–1943: Duchowschtschina, Rear Area, Army Group Center (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Mitte); post-1991: Dukhovshchina, Russian Federation

Dukhovshchina is located 57 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Smolensk. According to the 1939 census, 102 Jews were living in Dukhovshchina (2.64 percent of the total population).

German units of Army Group Center occupied the town on July 15, 1941, 24 days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22. During that time, some Jews were able to evacuate to the east, and men of eligible age were conscripted into the Red Army.

Shortly after the occupation of the town, in late July or early August 1941, the German Ortskommandantur appointed a mayor (Bürgermeister) of Dukhovshchina and ordered the local administration to organize the registration and marking of the Jews. The Jewish population was also exploited for various forms of forced labor. The town’s remaining Jews were moved into a ghetto, to concentrate them in one location and isolate them from the rest of the population. The ghetto was liquidated in the summer of 1942 at which time the Jews of the town were shot. The number of Jewish victims is reported to be 300, but this figure may be exaggerated. The chief of the raion police force, Shershukov, took an active part in the shooting Aktion; there were several dozen victims. At least two Jewish families (the Gurevich and Bliumin families) were saved with the help and support of local residents.¹