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

1938–1941: Smolensk, capital city, Smolensk oblast’, RSFSR; 1941–1943: Rear Area, Army Group Center (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Mitte); post-1991: Russian Federation

Smolensk is located 419 kilometers (260 miles) west-southwest of Moscow on the Dnieper River and on the main railroad from Moscow to Minsk. According to the 1939 census, 14,812 [End Page 1820] Jews were residing in the city (out of a total population of 156,900). The Smolensk ghetto was the largest in all the occupied territories of the Russian Federation and also the one that lasted for the longest time, one year. This reflected the need of the German army for labor in the city, as Smolensk was a strategically important railway junction directly on the main line of advance towards Moscow.

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Wehrmacht and SS defendants sit in the dock during their trial in Smolensk for perpetrating war crimes against the Soviet people, 1945.

USHMM WS #79149, COURTESY OF RGAKFD

On July 16, 1941, the Germans occupied the greater part of the city, which lay on the left bank of the Dnieper River. The battle for the right bank of the river lasted until July 29. The majority of the Jewish population (about 12,000 people) was evacuated or managed to escape.

The German authorities issued the order to resettle the Smolensk Jews into a ghetto at the end of July, three days after the establishment of the field commandant’s office (Feldkommandantur, or FK, (V) 813).¹

In August, the “advance squad Moscow” (Vorauskommando Moskau) of Einsatzgruppe B searched certain quarters of Smolensk for “officials, agents, criminals, members of the Jewish intelligentsia, and others.” During this operation the Security Police arrested and shot 74 people.² Shortly afterwards, Einsatzgruppe B reported the shooting of “38 Jewish intellectuals, who had tried to create unrest and discontent in the newly established Smolensk ghetto.”³

The ghetto was established in the northwestern area of the city known as the “Sadki” district, located on the right bank of the Dnieper River, not far from the Jewish cemetery and the railway. The ghetto was surrounded with barbed wire, and a local Russian police unit (Ordnungsdienst), under the overall command of a Russian named Umnov, guarded the perimeter.⁴

The ghetto was under control of the local Russian administration, which had been established by the German military administration. The notes of the mayor of Smolensk, B. Menshagin, regarding the establishment of the ghetto have survived:

[1-3 not included here.]

• 4. Excluding the Jewish district, the entire city shall be free of Jews by 4:00 p.m. on August 5, 1941.

• 5. All Jews who remain in the city after that designated hour shall be arrested and shot.

• 6. In the settlement area, Jews do not have the right to exit without special permission. This permission can be granted only by the official commandant of the city, or by the police.

• 7. The area for Jewish settlement shall be surrounded by barbed wire and by a certain date it has to be enclosed by walls.

• 8. Residences liberated from the Jewish population shall be administered by the head of the city in the interests of the local population.

[9 and 10 not included here.]

• 11. All Jews in Smolensk shall be prohibited from having any direct contact with the city’s administrator and his headquarters, or with any Russian citizens. Contacts must be mediated through the Jewish Council [Judenrat].

• 12. All Jews over the age of 10 are obliged to wear a yellow Star of David, measuring 10 centimeters [4 inches] in diameter. The symbol shall be worn on the front and back of their clothing. Jews caught not wearing the yellow star after 4:00 p.m. on August 5, 1941, shall be arrested, locked up [in the building of the former NKVD], and shot.⁵

According to the city administration of Smolensk, there were some 1,200 people collected in the ghetto as of November 1, 1941.⁶ That number subsequently increased a little. The Jews in the ghetto included those from Smolensk and the surrounding areas, as well as some refugees from Belorussia.

On the basis of a list containing the names of 1,364 Jews who were shot from the Smolensk ghetto, which Soviet authorities compiled after the liberation of the city, the breakdown of the ghetto inhabitants was roughly as follows: 350 men, 614 women, and 350 children less than 15 years old. Of the men, some 50 percent were over age 50. About 40 percent of the women were aged 19 to 39.

The commandant appointed Dr. Painson, a well-known dentist, as the elder in charge of the ghetto’s affairs. In the words of one witness, he “complained many times about this onerous duty, which he had to carry out in the interests of the Jewish population but without any prospect of a good outcome.”⁷ He organized the Jews for forced labor in accordance with the commandant’s orders and enforced security inside the ghetto. According to one German source, the Judenrat in Smolensk consisted of four or five people who spoke good German, including one woman, and was responsible for ensuring that the restrictions imposed on the Jews were strictly observed.⁸

About 70 small houses were located in the ghetto.⁹ Each house contained several families. There was neither electricity nor sufficient space for people to sleep at night. Many people slept in a sitting position, still wearing their clothes.

[End Page 1821] The Jews were able to leave the ghetto at times in order to barter possessions for food, although the Russian-speaking population was not supposed to associate with them. Approximately two months before the destruction of the ghetto, a much stricter regime was enforced, in which anyone entering and exiting the ghetto was closely monitored. That put an end to the vital trade between Jews and non-Jews.

During the first months after the ghetto was established, Jewish craftsmen received their work instructions from the labor office (Arbeitsamt). The commandant’s office issued a few work permits for tailors and shoemakers to continue their trades. In October 1941, the mayor B. Menshagin received a directive (“Regarding the Jews”) from the Feldkommandantur. It included the following instructions:

Based on order no. 50023/41 issued by the Economic Inspectorate on October 22, 1941, it is determined that Jews shall be excluded from the list of workers available for employment…. Jews must be dismissed immediately by the Wehrmacht. After the exclusion of the Jews from the list, their equipment must be confiscated and handed into protective custody at the mayor’s administrative headquarters. The mayor is obliged to consult with the labor registration office and distribute the confiscated equipment to Aryan craftsmen…. Any usable items found in the possession of Jews should be confiscated and stored. All Jews shall be confined in a ghetto.

The directive further emphasized that Jews should be gathered in groups for forced labor and assigned to the most demanding physical work.¹⁰

All able-bodied Jews went out daily to perform forced labor. Initially they cleared debris from the streets and repaired damaged buildings. Then, on the order of the Feldkommandantur, they began to work on the railway. They were escorted to work in columns of 50, 100, or more people, guarded by the Ordnungsdienst and Germans with dogs. At the railway station, Jews cleaned, unloaded, and loaded railway wagons. They hauled railway ties and cleaned toilets, even though they never received adequate tools for these tasks. In the winter they cleared snow from the tracks, the roads, and the air base. Weak and infirm Jewish workers were shot, and their coworkers were forced to bury them on the spot.

Jews in the ghetto did not receive any food rations. When Dr. Painson asked the commandant, “How are we to feed our families?” he answered that such trifles were not his problem.¹¹ According to the newspaper of the Smolensk City Committee, called Rabochii put’ (The Worker’s Way), people in the ghetto ate nettles to ward off starvation.¹² The prisoners exchanged personal items such as clothes, footwear, and valuables with local peasants for food or got it from friends and acquaintances. Workers received a ration of 200 grams (7 ounces) of bread that consisted of bran dust mixed with turnips and beetroots. For those who could not leave the ghetto, the only hope was the children who sneaked out of the ghetto and foraged or begged.

In the ghetto there was no running water, although it was bounded by the Dnieper River. Russian policemen and Germans frequently took water away from Jews or poured it on the ground, so the exhausted prisoners had to go and get more. Because of the lack of water and food, many diseases broke out and spread quickly. These included dysentery, typhus, and tuberculosis. In the winter of 1941–1942, because of famine, cold, and disease, more than 200 people perished, particularly young children and old men. It was forbidden to bury the dead in the cemetery, even though it was located nearby. Graves were dug randomly in the ghetto. The dead were buried naked, since those still surviving needed their clothes.

German Feldgendarmes repeatedly robbed the Jews in the ghetto. They stole watches, gold and silver items, and utensils. Starting in September 1941, they started to demand any warm clothing from the Jews. They took fur coats and fur caps and even peeled the fleece cuffs from some articles of clothing. Night searches were accompanied by beatings and shooting. On several occasions, the ghetto prisoners were ordered to pay taxes. They were required to hand over specific amounts of gold items, furs, clothing, and so forth.

Shortly before the liquidation of the ghetto, a very large fine was imposed on the Jews for not delivering a “contribution” to the German city administration. On July 5, 1942, Mayor Menshagin reported to SS-Obersturmführer Kurt Matschke of the Trupp Smolensk unit of Einsatzgruppe B: “On the order of the commandant’s office, 60 complete sets of bedding and 3 sewing machines were requested from the ghetto. The Jewish Council was fined 5,000 rubles for the failure to deliver the requested bedding material on time.”¹³ One witness recalled that in June 1942 the mayor of the city ordered the Jews to bring 7,000 rubles in gold to the city administration.

Jewish girls and young women were subject to mockery and sexual violence from the Germans and Russian policemen. On one cold night the Germans rounded up Jewish girls, forced them to undress, lined them up, and then started to beat them. Several witnesses recalled that “the Germans regularly came into the ghetto and raped women at will.”¹⁴ Sometimes at night, old men and women stood guard to warn people of intruders. But Russian policemen conducted random inspections in the ghetto during the evenings and took away beautiful girls who did not always return.

Killings of Jews in Smolensk continued throughout the entire period of the ghetto’s existence. The German Police Regiment “Mitte” shot 1 Jew in the first half of January 1942 during an attempted escape. In the first half of February 1942, 1 Jew was shot as a Communist and for not wearing the Star of David. In the second half of February 1942, 5 Jews were murdered for disseminating provocative rumors and for refusal to work. Around the same time, 3 Jews were killed for not wearing the Star of David and for being outside the ghetto without permission. In March 1942, “Trupp Smolensk” of Einsatzgruppe B shot 18 Jews.¹⁵ Hostages were repeatedly taken from the ghetto on the pretext of having broken the regulations with the aim of extorting money or valuables. Most did not return.¹⁶ A Soviet partisan source reported that “drunken German officers with [End Page 1822] the sanction of the commandant of Smolensk were able to shoot Jews without any fear of being brought to account.”¹⁷

In the reports of witnesses, including those of ghetto survivors, there is only fragmentary information about Jewish resistance. One interesting source comes from a reconnaissance report by Soviet partisans. The following is noted:

In the suburbs of Smolensk there are three or four prison camps for the Jews. No food is given to them. Many have no trousers or outer clothing, and are covered only with blankets. They have bartered their clothes for food. Owing to these conditions among the Jews, there were revolts during which they killed the guards and tried to escape. But they were caught and shot.¹⁸

Two Jewish women did manage to escape from the ghetto and hide in the city with Russian friends. Eventually they received new identity documents. Several children from mixed Russian-Jewish families were also rescued with the help of their Russian relatives and friends. There are also several other cases of Jews in Smolensk who were rescued with the help of the local population.

On the night of July 14–15, 1942, members of the Security Police and SD, German Feldgendarmerie, and Russian police arrived in the ghetto. The Russian policemen acted on the orders of G. Gandziuk, the first deputy to the mayor of Smolensk, and possibly also a man named Alferchik, who was the head of the 2nd (Po liti cal) Section of the Russian police.¹⁹ They drove the Jews out of their homes and loaded them onto covered trucks. Throughout the day until the evening of July 15, 1942, the Jews were transported in groups to a prepared ditch in a wood near the village of Magalenshchina. According to the statements of local residents taken by officials of the military counterintelligence section (SMERSh), after the liberation of the city on September 25, 1943, some of the Jews were poisoned in three gas vans that transported them on four successive trips, and some were shot at the ditch.²⁰ The shooting was carried out by members of Trupp Smolensk.²¹ An estimated 1,200 to 2,000 people were shot.²² A few skilled worker-specialists were selected out and allowed to remain alive for a while longer. A small number of Jews managed to escape on the night of July 14, 1942, just as the loading of the trucks commenced.

Russian witnesses testify that the remaining property of the Jews in the ghetto was plundered by the Russian police. One German source indicates that the clothes and other items from the ghetto were distributed as follows: 25 percent for hospitals and the Russian police and 50 percent for the civilian employees of the Wehrmacht. Jewish woman Asia Shneiderman, who was living in Smolensk in 1942, testified that “items from the ghetto were brought to the Gestapo and used to dress the prostitutes in Smolensk.”²³

According to the report of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), the following persons were identified and accused of the murder of the Jews: Erich Naumann, the head of Einsatzgruppe B from November 1941 until early in 1943; Franz-Josef Tormann, the head of the Security Police and SD unit Trupp Smolensk; Oberleutnant Schit, the chief of police; and von Schwetz, the military commandant of Smolensk.²⁴

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Portrait of Raisa Pisareva, who was honored in 1998 by Yad Vashem for saving Jewish lives in Smolensk during the Holocaust. Photo taken September 18, 1949 at the Pedagogical Institute in Smolensk.

USHMM WS #57692, COURTESY OF JFR