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SENNO GHETTO

Senno used to be called a Jewish town because most of the population before the Great Patriotic War was Jewish. The town had six synagogues.

Haim Isaakovich Heifez (born in 1909) recalls: “Four synagogues were wooden. The biggest one was located in Pushkin Street. Another one was in Golynka Street (now Michurin Street). In Pervomaiskaya Street there was a synagogue, which was attended by followers of Lubavichi Rabbi. Until the middle of the 20s Rabbi Itkin was the only rabbi in the town. After the Soviet authorities forbade him to work, the synagogues were looked after by village seniors. I remember two of them – Aron Cherniak and Aron Heifez. All the holidays were celebrated and all the traditions were followed.”

Most Jews were craftsmen, and passed their skills from generation to generation.

As it frequently happens in life, the good things are replaced by tragic and sad ones. When the occupants came they marked the Jewish population out with yellow labels on their clothes. The witnesses’ memories of the shapes of the labels vary. Iraida Savelievna Golovinova, born in 1912, mentioned yellow Magen Davids, while Vera Stepanovna Shlapakova, born in 1927, clearly remembered yellow circles. We did not manage to determine the exact date when the ghetto was established. Here is an extract from the investigation commission act, dated March 22^nd, 1945: “In November, 1941, German monsters forced all the Jewish residents to move to seven houses in Voroshilova (Golynka) Street and thus the ghetto was established.” Maria Yevdokimovna Dunets, born in 1924, considers that the ghetto appeared earlier – somewhere at the beginning of September or August. The investigation commission also mentioned the following: “About 45-50 people were settled in each building.” If each house had 50 people, then the whole ghetto must have had 350 people. However, the number of victims, executed in December, 1941, is said to vary from 800 to 1,000. V.S. Shlapakova is certain that the ghetto consisted of 19 houses. Yekaterina Ivanovna Sinitskaya, born in 1923, recalls: “We lived in Golynka before the war. In autumn, 1941 Nazi policemen came and ordered us to leave the house. We had to move to the basement of a two-storey building in Oktabrskaya Street.”

Another extract from the investigation act: “Policemen guarded the houses where the Jews lived. The Nazis did not let them leave the houses. The Jews were forced to work physically and given 50 gram of bread daily. Sometimes no food was given at all. Denis Matygin and Diagilev beat the Jewish residents with lashes.”

V.S. Shlapakova continues: “The houses in the ghetto were all marked with yellow crosses, attached to the windows. The houses, which were outside the ghetto, were not marked in any way.”

From the investigation act: “… all the food, clothes, valuables were taken from the Jews for them to die of cold and hunger. 12 people were shot for being late for work – their names are not known. It happened on October 16^th, 1941. Seven more people were shot on November 27^th, 1941 for not having blackout in their windows.”

The ghetto in Senno had a Judenrat, headed by Samuil Davidovich Svoisky, a school principal.

M.Y. Dunets recalls: “In autumn, 1941, I met Samuil Davidovich Svoisky. I can clearly remember a yellow Magen David, attached to the back of his jacket. He started asking me to hide his twin daughters, mentioning that he was the senior in the ghetto and would not be executed. At that time we were already hiding my classmate Samuil. Our family was big – seven children and I said that unfortunately I could not do anything. We were scared because the whole family could be shot for that. I offered him to join a partisan detachment in the village of Bubyly. Then we parted.”

The investigation act states: “On December 29^th new Nazi detachments arrived in town and, together with the local policemen, surrounded Golynka Street, where all the Jews lived. Everyone was ordered to come out and then an announcement was made: “You will be sent to Orsha for work”. Then groups of 40 people were taken to the village of Kozlovka, where ditches had been prepared. The people were made to go into the ditches and lie down. Then they were shot – all in all 965 Jews. The execution went on from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.”

H.I. Heifez: “Early in the morning the Jews were woken up. Some people, who were still not dressed, were pushed outside barefooted. They were then shot in haste, because the Germans feared a partisan attack would follow. There was a local partisan detachment, founded by the Einstein brothers Baruch and Berl. It included Anzel Fridman, Shlema Fridman, Izek Heifez.”

I.S. Golovinova says: “The daughter of a pharmacy manager was a young and beautiful woman. When being taken to the execution, she cried and begged: “I am young and want to live”. Sender Klaz’s six-year-old granddaughter Valia begged: “Don’t shoot, my father is Russian. Nobody listened to her. She was killed.”

After the ghetto was eliminated, the Nazis started hunting down the children from mixed marriages. Hristia Ianovna Meltsina’s three children, whose father was Jewish, were killed.

Y.I. Sinitskaya says: “My relative Pshigotsky had a Jewish wife. She and their son were hidden by relatives but someone gave them away to the Nazis. We do not know what happened to them, most probably they were killed.”

The number of the executed Jews in Senno should be specified. The memorial has an inscription stating the number was 800. The act dated September 8^th, 1944, states the number of people executed on December 29^th, 1941, was 965. We should also add the children from mixed marriages, executed later and the number might become 1,000 or even more. There is a list of the victims, executed in the ghetto, made by H.I. Heifez and B.M. Meltsina.

The information about the Senno ghetto was accumulated by my teachers on June 5^th, 1997: Zubaleva Y.A., Molchanova N.P. together with Gennady Vinnitsa.

Olga Fomina,
9^th grade student, school No. 2, Senno,
teacher: Nadezhda Petrovna Molchanova,
The research project participated in the 2^nd Republican contest “Holocaust. History and present times. Tolerance lessons.”
The original can be found in the archive of the Museum of history and culture of Belarusian Jews.

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