Klimavichy ( be, Клiмавiчы; russian: Климовичи, Klimovichi, lt, Klimavičai;

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 ...

: Klimavičy) is a city 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' ...

. Klimavichy is located east of Mogilev on the bank of Kalinica River 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

Klimavichy District Klimavichy District ( be, Клімавіцкі раён, russian: Климовичский район, ''Klimovichsky raion'') is a district in Mogilev Region, Belarus. The administrative center is the town of Klimavichy Klimavichy ( be, Клiм ...

since 1924. As of 2009, its population was 17,064.

History

First references in historical documents are dated by 1581 in relation to Mścisław Voivodship of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was Partitions of Poland, partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire, Habsburg Empire of ...

. It was granted city status in 1777, and a

Coat of Arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

in 1781. According to the census of 1897, the city had 4,714 inhabitants. 50.2 percent were Orthodox, 47.9 percent Jews and 1.5 percent Catholics. It was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

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 ...

on August 10, 1941, and liberated in October 1943. In January 1939, there were 1,693 Jews in the village. There was a Yiddish school until 1938. The majority of the Jews were merchants. There were 4 executions of Jews in Klimovichi. At the end of August 1941, 13 Jews were arrested, taken to the Jewish cemetery in order to dig a pit. They were shot there afterwards. The second execution took place on November 6, 1941. Some Jews were sent to work and the remaining Jews were gathered in a garage near the hospital. Germans took their valuables. The Jews were then displaced near the airport, not far from the village of Dolgaya Gora and were shot by Germans and local policemen. On the same day, the Jews who were sent to work were shot at the same location. According to some sources, between 750 and 900 Jews were killed on that day. After this massacre, 80 Jews remained alive. They were concentrated in one house. At the end of November 1941, these Jews were forced to walk to Melovaya Gora, in the area of the town near the Lazhbanka River, and were shot. Some of those in the shooting were able to escape and run away. In April 1943, the children from mixed-families were imprisoned by the Germans and were shot on April 12, 1943. The city and especially its

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

heavily suffered during the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two n ...

References

External links

Klimovichy raion websitePhotos on Radzima.orgThe murder of the Jews of Klimavichy
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. Cities in Belarus Populated places in Mogilev Region Klimavichy District Mstislaw Voivodeship Klimovichskiy Uyezd Holocaust locations in Belarus {{Belarus-geo-stub