Smiyovskaya Balka
Coordinates: 47 ° 14 ′ 44.9 ″ N , 39 ° 39 ′ 3.6 ″ E
Smijowskaja Balka ( Russian Змиёвская балка ; Ukrainian Зміївська балка ; English Zmievskaya Balka ) describes the place where, on August 11 and 12, 1942, about 27,000 residents of Rostov-on-Don , mostly of Jewish origin, lost their lives in mass murders carried out by Einsatzgruppe D. lost. Smijowskaja Balka means snake gorge in German and is a side valley of the Temernik ( Russian Темерник ), a 35.5 km long right tributary of the Don . On May 9, 1975, the largest Holocaust memorial in the then Russian republic was opened in Smijowskaja Balka, northwest of the city center .
Historical background
Rostov-on-Don was occupied twice by German troops during World War II . In the short period from November 17 to 28, 1941, no further-reaching measures could be taken to exterminate the Jewish population of Rostov; it was different after the second ingestion on July 24, 1942, when shortly afterwards the order to register all Jewish residents over the age of 14 and the instruction to wear the Star of David was issued.
execution
From August 5th to 6th, 1942, Soviet prisoners of war had to dig huge pits and trenches in the Serpent Gorge outside the city, after which they were murdered on the spot. On August 9, an order was published that the entire Jewish population had to come to certain assembly points on August 11 by 8 a.m. at the latest for the purpose of “resettlement”. In groups of 200 to 300 people, they were driven to the site of the murder. The majority of the adults were shot and so-called gas vans were also used . The extermination operation was under the direction of SS-Oberführer Walther Bierkamp , the shootings on the spot supervised the SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Christmann . Both were involved in other crimes committed by Einsatzgruppe D in the Krasnodar area and in the North Caucasus ( Mineralnyje Vody , Kislowodsk , Essentuki , Pyatigorsk ) until July 1943 , where they followed Army Group A , which was entrusted with the Edelweiss company .
Known victims
- Jelena Michailowna Schirmann , Russian-Jewish poet
- Sabina Spielrein , Russian-Jewish psychoanalyst
memorial
After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the monument to the west of a railway line, inaugurated in 1975, fell into disrepair. The museum was no longer open, the asphalt on the paths was crumbling and the gas supply to the Eternal Flame was cut off. After repair and renovation work in 2009, the memorial reopened in November 2009. In 2011 a plaque was replaced at the memorial. The inscription from 2004 read “On August 11 and 12, 1942, more than 27,000 Jews were exterminated here by the Nazis. This is the largest Russian Holocaust memorial. ”On the new plaque, the word“ Jews ”has been replaced by“ peaceful citizens of Rostov-on-Don and Soviet prisoners of war ”.
See also
- Babyn Yar , the gorge near Kiev and the site of a massacre on September 29 and 30, 1941
- Drobyzkyj Jar , gorge near Charkow / Charkiw and site of a massacre on December 15, 1941
