Dzyatlava massacre
The Dzyatlava massacres were two consecutive mass shooting actions carried out three months apart during the Holocaust. The town of Zdzięcioł (Yiddish: זשעטל, romanized: Zhetel, Polish: Zdzięcioł, Belarusian: Dzyatlava) was located in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic prior to World War II.
| Dzyatlava massacres | |
|---|---|
Commemorative plaque to 3,000 victims of the Dzyatlava massacres. | |
| Also known as | Polish: zbrodnia w Dziatławie |
| Location | Zdzięcioł (now, Dzyatlava) German-occupied Poland, present-day Belarus |
| Date | April 30, 1942 August 10, 1942 |
| Incident type | Shootings by automatic and semi-automatic weapons |
| Perpetrators | SS, Order Police battalions, Lithuanian and Belarusian Auxiliary Police |
| Ghetto | Zdzięcioł Ghetto |
| Victims | 3,000–5,000 Polish Jews in total |
The German authorities created Zdzięcioł Ghetto in February 1942 and ordered over 4,500 Polish Jews to relocate there. Two months later, at the end of April 1942, the mobile German death squad aided by the Lithuanian and the Belarusian Auxiliary Police battalions, surrounded the ghetto and ordered all Jews to leave their houses to undergo a "selection". The victims were escorted to the main square and made to wait until the break of dawn. The next day, those who had work certificates were released along with their families, and all others were gradually taken out of town in groups for "relocation". In total, about 1,000–1,200 Jews were marched to the Kurpiesze (Kurpyash) forest and murdered in waves on April 30, 1942. The second massacre took place over three months later on August 6, 1942, during the liquidation of Zdzięcioł Ghetto. Some 1,500–2,000 Jews, possibly up to 3,000 by different source (perhaps a combined number), were murdered at the Jewish cemetery.