Klimavichy (; ) is a town in Mogilev Region,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. It serves as the administrative center of Klimavichy District. Klimavichy is located east of

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

on the bank of the Kalinica River. In 2009, its population was 17,064. As of 2025, it has a population of 14,868.

History

First references in historical documents are dated by 1581 in relation to

Mścisław Voivodship Mstislaw Voivodeship or Mścisław Voivodeship (; ; ; ) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (from 1569 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), since the 15th century until the Partitions of Pol ...

of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

. It was granted city status in 1777, and a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

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.

World War II

It was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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.

References

External links

Klimovichy raion websitePhotos on Radzima.orgThe murder of the Jews of Klimavichy
during

, at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

website. {{Authority control Holocaust locations in Belarus