Bykhaw ( be, Бы́хаў,

Łacinka The Belarusian Latin alphabet or Łacinka (from be, лацінка or łacinka, BGN/PCGN: ''Latsinka'', ) for the Latin script in general is the common name for writing Belarusian using Latin script. It is similar to the Sorbian alphabet an ...

: ''Bychaŭ'', ) or Bykhov (russian: Бы́хов, pl, Bychów, yi, italic=yes, Bihov, , lt, Bychavas) is a town in the eastern

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

ian

Mogilev Region Mogilev Region or Mogilev Oblast or Mahiliow Voblasts ( be, link=no, Магілёўская вобласць; ''Mahiloŭskaja voblasć''; russian: link=no, Могилёвская область; ''Mogilyovskaya Oblast''), is a region ('' oblast' ...

. It is located 44 km south of Mogilev (M on the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

(Dniapro), and is the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of the

Bykhaw District Bykhaw District ( be, Быхаўскі раён, russian: Быховский район, Bykhovsky raion) is a raion (district) in Mogilev Region, Belarus, the administrative center is the town of Bykhaw Bykhaw ( be, Бы́хаў, Łacinka: ''B ...

. As of 2009, its population was 17,031.

History

In the early modern times Bykhaw was an important fortress known for hard battles. Bykhaw is known for its 17th-century

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Bychaw was occupied by the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

from 5 July 1941 until 28 June 1944 and placed under the administration of the '' Generalbezirk Weißruthenien'' of ''

Reichskommissariat Ostland The Reichskommissariat Ostland (RKO) was established by Nazi Germany in 1941 during World War II. It became the civilian occupation regime in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the western part of Byelorussian SSR. German planning documents initi ...

''. The Jews of Bykhov were killed in two mass shootings in September and November 1941. According to the German and Soviet archives, there were 4600 Jews from Bykhaw who were shot in Voronino. Bykhov-1 Heroes Square 01

There is an abandoned military airfield, inside a military town called , which is now a

microdistrict Microdistrict, or micro raion (russian: микрорайо́н, ''mikrorajón''), is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet and former Socialist ...

of Bykhaw.

References

External links

Bykhaw. Synagogues

Jewish Encyclopedia

The murder of the Jews of Bykhaw
during

, at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

website. Bykhovsky Uyezd Holocaust locations in Belarus Populated places in Mogilev Region Populated places on the Dnieper in Belarus Towns in Belarus {{Belarus-geo-stub