Chislavichi

On the course of its history, Chislavichi (Khislavichi) changed its name as well as rulers. Named, according to one unproved version found in the internet, after the Slavic family of Choslav (Khoslav) who settled there in the Middle Ages, the town under Polish rule was called Choslawicze, and the Jews who began to arrive there called it Choslawicz (Choslavitch, Khoslavitz), writing in Hebrew - חאסלאוויטש and in Russian - Хославич.
Situated on the right bank of the river Sohz, the town ("mestechko") belonged to Wojewodztwo Mscislawskie (Mstislavl Voivodeship). The Jews just resided there in the period of Russian-Swedish war (1700-1721), and in the year of 1765 in addition to gentiles it had a Jewish population of 237. From after the first partition of Poland in 1772 and the establishment of Russian Empire's authority over surrounding territories until 1919 it belonged to Mstislavl Uyezd (district) of Mogilev Gubernia (province) and was its biggest shtetl, except Mstislavl itself. In 1847, according to an "audit" of that year, its Jewish community numbered 2205, and 50 years later, according to the 1897 census, the Jews numbered 3901 (out of a total population of 5066). Approximately in the same period, there were 2 churches, 1 official synagogue (in reality, at least 11), 1 Jewish primary school and 1 yeshiva. In the pre-school period the children made their first steps to Jewish knowledge in numerous heders. The shtetl's owner, the earl Saltykov, was good to the Jews and even tried to protect them, when in the 1840-s they were persecuted as part of the so-called "Mstislavl uproar". He provided assistance to their representatives pleading in St. Petersburg for the Mstislavl Jewish population. The Jewish residents of Chislavichi were mainly day-labourers, artisans and petty merchants. In 1891 there were 3 tanneries, 2 groats producing factories and 3 creameries.

The Jews took active part in shtetl's management: the head of its Petty Bourgeois Administration in the second half of the 19th century till 1901 was Chaim Risin, after him - his son Abram.

There were at least 14 prominent rabbis in Chislavichi in various periods, many of them were famous far beyond the shtetl they served:

-R. Chaim Iankielowicz, the first known rabbi of Chislavichi who lived there in 18th century.

-R. Israel ben Menachem Man Bachrach (died in 1827), rabbi and A.B.D. in Chislavichi till his death.

R. Israel was a descendant of MaHaRaL from Prague and R. Shimon Yair Chaim Bachrach (1628-1701) of Worms, the author of "Chavat Yair". R. Israel married into Slavin family, descendants of R. Shabtai Slavin, the owner of the printing house in Kopust. The Slavin family occupied important position in ChaBaD Chassidic movement. After the death of R. Israel, his son R. Eisik took the rabbinate Chislavichi, and his daughter's son R. Leib Slavin was MoZ.

-R. Eisik ben Israel Bachrach, rabbi in Chislavichi from 1827 till his death in 1848.

-R. Moshe Nechemia Kahanov (1817-1887), the author of "Netivot Shalom", "Shnat Ha-Sheva", "Eretz Chefetz" and other works. He was a rabbi in Chislavichi from 1848 until 1864.

-R. Yom-Tov Lipman (Lippele) Ha-Cohen Baslavsky (1821-1892), the author of "Malbushei Yom Tov. He was ABD and rabbi in Chislavichi from 1865 till 1874.

-R. Benzion Sternfeld (d.1917), the author of "Sha'arei Zion". He was rabbi in Chislavichi in 1874-1877. He was also rabbi in Kalvarija and, eventually, in Bielsk in 1900-s.

-R. Eliyahu Ha-Levi Feinstein (1842-1928), the author of "Halakhot Eliyahu". He was ABD and rabbi in Chislavichi from 1877 till 1884.

-R. Hillel Mileikovsky, Ha-Gaon from Salant (1821-1899). He was a rabbi in Chislavichi from 1884 till 1889.

-R. Avraham Yitzhak Maskileison (Maskil L'Eitan, 1839-1904), rabbi in Chislavichi from 1889 till 1903.

-R. Menachem ben Zvi Hirsh Krakowsky (Krakowiako-Krakowsky,1869-1929), the author of "Avodat Ha-Melech", "Arzei Ha-Levanon", "Ya'ar Ha-Levanon". He was ABD and rabbi in Chislavichi from 1903 till 1913.

-R. Moshe Soloveitchik (1879-1941), the father of the famous R. Yosef Dov Soloveichik. Rabbi in Chislavichi from 1913 till 1920.

-R. Israel Shaul Yafin, rabbi in Chislavichi in 1920s, afterwards - rabbi in Smolevichi, from there moved to Latvia. Murdered by the haters of the Jews in 1941.

-R. Zvi Hirsh Lifshitz (1863-1927, Chislavichi), the author of "Chamudei Zvi" (1896). He was rabbi in Chislavichi in 1920-s.

-R. Meir Stalevich (1870, Eishyshok-1949, Jerusalem), the author of "Mibeit Meir". Rabbi in Chislavichi in 1927-1932.

R. Yehuda ben Binyamin Bacharach, teacher and shochet, a grandson of R. Israel Bakharakh, R. Sa'adya, the famous "blind of Chislavichi", R. Chaim Shorin, dayan and the author of "Divrei Chaim", R. Zelig Minkes, R. Shimon Moshe Diskin (1872, Shumyachi -1930, Lokhvitsa), the author of "Midrash Shim'oni" (1939) and activist of Zionist movement, and his son, R. Refael Yehoshua Zelig Diskin (1896, Chislavichi - 1970, Bnei Brak), they too were prominent residents of Chislavichi, though they served rabbis in other locations. R. Refael Yehoshu'a Zelig wrote the preface "Toldot Ha-Mechaber" to his father's work "Midrash Shim'oni" containing the history of his life, from which one can learn many interesting things about Chislavichi in that period. He also published the article Kehilat Choslavitch Verabbaneha (Chislavichi and her Rabbis) which is the great source of knowledge on this issue.

As well as for its rabbis and scholars, Chislavichi was known for its yeshiva founded by R. Moshe Nechamya Kahanov (who was afterwards RaM in the yeshiva "Etz Ha-Chaim" in Jerusalem). Very soon it became a place of Jewish thought and learning, famous throughout the Russian empire. One of its most famous teachers was its RaM, R. Israel Pesin (d. in 1901), called "the Angel" for his devotion to Torah and mitzvoth. It was said that R. Hillel, Ha-Gaon from Salant used to say: "I have never been in awe of anyone, only of R. Israel the Angel am I because the awe of the Almighty shrouds him all day long". Another expert on Torah was R. Yitzhak Mirenburg. He was a devoted instructor of the yeshiva students who made sizeable progress in their studies under his guidance.

Well-known in the first half of the 20th century was chazzan (the cantor) Rachmiel Stiller, later murdered by the Nazis' collaborators (in 1941).

The greater part of Chislavichi’s Jewish population were misnagdim, though ChaBaD chassidim were also not infrequently encountered. Good neighbour relations and cooperation existed between the two mutually antagonistic groups, a rare event in that period. Local events which occurred during the Russian-French war of 1812 were the reason for this. When the French army invaded the Russian Empire, the founder of the ChaBaD movement, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady, supported Russia in her war effort against Napoleon, whom he thought to be a danger to Russian Jewry by reason of the French Jews’ emancipation which came after the Corsican had gained power. The French accused R. Shneur Zalman and his chassidim of espionage on behalf of Russia and began to hunt him down. He was forced to take flight and found shelter in Chislavichi, among the misnagdim. After these events R. Shneur Zalman ordered his chassidim to trust and support the misnagdim rabbis who from now on were to be appointed rabbis of Chislavichi. And these orders were always strictly followed.

The most of Chislavichi Jews were poor toilers: tailors, shoemakers, petty merchants. But there were also few wealthy men who donated money to help poor and supported public facilities: the synagogues, the mikveh, the cemetery. One of them was R. Yehezkel Shor of Mogilev who donated to establish the yeshiva in Chislavichi, another one – R. Yishayahu Gershon Czernyak who helped much to poor women in childbirth and sick to recover.

There was a big fire in Chislavichi in 1886 when many houses burned down. It was an omen of the coming of the great fire of revolutions, world wars and Holocaust that would completely change the shtetl's traditional way of life until its eventual disappearance.

Meanwhile, in the 1890s new winds began to blow in Chislavichi. The wind of "enlightenment" and assimilation took many young Jews from traditional ways of life to gentile vocations, including their involvement in Russian education, culture, industry, and, later, in revolutionary activity. In the opposite direction blew the winds of emigration, "Chibat Zion" and aliyah to Eretz Israel.

The Chibat Zion movement, which was born after the wave of pogroms on the wake of assassination of the Czar Alexander the Second in 1881, aimed to encourage Russian Jews to immigrate to Eretz Israel and help those who did. For this purpose the “Society for support of Jewish farmers and artisans in Syria and Palestine” was established in 1890 with its Vaad (Committee) based in Odessa. Local branches of the Society were founded all over the Russian Empire, including Chislavichi.

The relatively small numbers of its members in the shtetl (10 members in the first three years) did not reflect the impact they had on the communal life. Their activities included celebrating together Jewish Holidays, spreading Hebrew language and its literature, organizing lectures of prominent Zionist preachers, both domestic and visiting, contributing articles to Hebrew newspapers, collection of donations for Eretz Israel, etc. Mostly young and enthusiastic, they initiated various projects serving the main purpose: to inspire the Jews to return to their historical Motherland, the Holy Land.

In 1893 Menachem Shapiro was nominated by Odessa Vaad as its representative in Chislavichi, one of his duties was collection of donations for Eretz Israel. In 1900 Dr. Kalman (Klementy) Blumberg, the official rabbi, took this position.

The donations were collected on regular basis as well as on various occasions like weddings, births, bar mitzvas, Torah readings on Holidays, In Memoriam, etc. Eretz-Israel donation bowls put in synagogues and beith-hamidrashim were full on Yom Kippur Eve. In the first three years, 65 rubles were sent to the Vaad. To the list of donations collected in Chislavichi or by Chislavichi residents for Eretz Israel via Odessa Vaad click here.

After the First Zionist Congress in Zurich in 1897, “Chibat Zion” in Russia joined the main stream of the Zionist movement. Agudat Ha-Zionim (Zionist Association) was established in Chislavichia in the end of 1800-s/beginning of 1900-s with Zvi Manevich as its Secretary. There were three prominent Zionist preachers in Chislavichi. The aforementioned R. Shim'on Diskin (1872-1930), a relative of the famous R. Yehoshu'a Yehudah Leib Diskin, A.B.D. of Brest and rabbi of Meah She'arim in Jerusalem, went from shtetl to shtetl inside the Pale, appealing to poor Jews to go to the Land of Israel, and from town to town outside it, persuading wealthy ones to donate for this sacred purpose. He was a brilliant commentator and eloquent orator. He was on good terms with such leaders of the Zionist movement as Dr. Yekhiel Chlenov, the writer Avraham Yakov Slutzky, and others. But, later, he became disaffected with the movement by reason of internal strife, the activities of those whose real motives were determined by their personal interests, as well as other negative tendencies. He ended his life as rabbi of Lochvitsa in the Poltava Region.

R. Shim'on Diskin

Other prominent preachers in Chislavichi were R. Yehuda Leib Zvi Evzerov and Dr. Aharon Yosef Agranat. Eventually the both of them came to Eretz Israel, the former became a darshan in the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv, and the latter settled in Haifa.

One of the first Lovers of Hebrew and Lovers of Zion among the maskilim in Chislavichi was Avraham Leib Maryasin (1862-1924). He worked hard for the Zionist Cause, hoping in the end to make aliyah. But his hopes were not destined to come true, and he died in Moscow, far from the land of in his dreams.

Soon after the Bolshevik revolution the Zionist movement in Russia was prohibited, some of its activists were arrested and sent to labor camps.

Actually, the first Chislavicher came to the Holy Land substantially earlier: some of them came with Chassidic aliya, others came with the waves of the Vilna Gaon's disciples (1808-1810). One of the founders of the famous Cheshin Family in Jerusalem - R. Yitzhak - came from Chislavichi. He was known as "R. Yitzhak the Choslavitzer", died in 1848 and was buried in the Mount of Olives cemetery. R. Meir Meizel (1827-1903) also settled in the Old city of Jerusalem and was known there as Choslavitzer Rav.

In 1848 Yankel Levitin and his family departed from Chislavichi via Odessa to "the Turkish Domains".

R. Yosef Yitin, a son of R. Chaim-Pinchas, was famous in Chislavichi for his profound knowledge of Torah, and his son Yehuda Yitin was among the first settlers of Hadar quarter in Haifa. The family of one of the richest residents of Chislavichi, R. Yosef Kamenezky, after their 17-years-old daughter had died, sold its property and moved to Eretz Israel. They took with them few old men who had no money to cover the travel expenses.

After the 1st Russian Revolution (1905) and changes in Russian political system, the Jews who take active part in revolutionary activities, got more rights and more economical freedom. They came to vote for the newly founded State Duma (Russian parliament) hoping that their delegates would struggle for changes in their situation. Important issue in the communal life was assistance for needed. For this purpose Society for Savings and Loans was founded. Its chairman was Chislavichi "Official Rabbi" Dr. Kalman (Klementy) Blumberg in 1907-1909 and Dr. Lev Rabinovich in1910-1916. A library was open for those who wished to widen their horizons, initially publicly owned and managed by Klementy Blumberg, later - privately owned and managed by Moses Rabinovich, who continued his work after the Bolshevik Revolution and expropriation of his library by Soviet authorities. In 1912 the Jewish community of Chislavichi numbered 1450 men, it means that in total the Jewish population was about 7,000, and that of nearby Zakharino - 271 and 1,300 accordingly.

In the wake of the wave of pogroms which swept Russia in the first decade of the 20th century, the Jews in Chislavichi organized their self-defense as a result of which no pogrom took place there in that period. Each of the self-defense groups was affiliated with some political party - Poalei Zion, Social-Democrats and Bund. For example, in 1906 the Bund group had 28 members, 60 weapons and some whips.

The First World War which broke out in 1914 brought to Chislavichi mass conscription to the Russian army, many Jews were called up, some were killed, others survived. Many Jewish refugees deported from the front-line areas came to Chislavichi, and the Jewish community took care of them, providing them with food, clothes and housing

The February revolution in 1917 came to Chislavichi by storm. Old institutions were replaced with new ones: police with militia, town administration with town Soviet (Council), and the Jews took active part in these activities - the first Chairman of the Council was Lev Israitel. A new, Jewish school was opened, the teaching there was in Yiddish. Its first manager was Arkady Petkun, his wife taught Russian language, and the daughter Sofia - geography and botanic.

After Bolshevik upheaval in November 1917 much more significant change came to Chislavichi. The Earl Saltykov's family was deprived of their property, their manager disappeared and the house passed to the hands of the town Council which made it its headquarters. The Jews met the Bolshevik revolution in various ways. Some people greeted it, seeing in it liberation from oppression and poverty. Some were against it, feeling disgust to Communist atheistic ideology. Some were indifferent. The first ones volunteered into new organisations which cells gradually began to grow in Chislavichi, such as Communist party and Komsomol. The others watched them with distrust and disdain. The revolutionary-thinking youth enthusiastically volunteered into the Red Army to take part in the Civil was which broke up in the aftermath of the revolution. Others reluctantly went to the recruiting station, fearing of being arrested and executed. All private businesses were closed. A group of Jews organized agricultural Commune on the piece of confiscated land of Earl Saltykov. Another group founded Artel (light industrial cooperative) for leather dressing. After the New Economic Policy was announced in 1921, private enterprises, as if resurrected from the ashes, began to flourish. Khesin, Lifshitz and Levitin opened hulling mills, Pisman and Dragilevsky - wool processing shops, Levitin and Zilberman - dye-houses, the families of Asnin, Galutin, Dragilev, Stesin and Leites - tanneries and leather treatment shops. Privately owned stores also opened: Slavin family sell hardware, Rabinovichs - textile goods, Weinsteins and Michlins - haberdashery. But even this restricted economic freedom did not last long. Till the end of the 1920-s all private businesses were closed, and their owners deprived of their political rights. The HeHalutz organisation which previously had been active in Chislavichi, now was banned. The Jewish school was also closed in 1936. In about two years after the Bolshevik revolution some territory of the Mstislavl District was administratively transferred to the Smolensk Region of Russia. Many Jewish families left Chislavichi, some for big cities in Russia, some were deported by NKVD to the Urals (including my father's family) and Siberia accused of belonging to "class of exploiters". Those who stayed were later swept by the wave of Communist terror or killed by the Nazis.

The Communists waged uncompromising war against Jewish tradition. One by one the synagogues were closed, the main synagogue turned into stoсking producing factory (see Attachment 1 and 2), the parchment of Torah scrolls was used for manufacturing of drums.

After the last rabbi of Chislavichi R. Meir Stalevich left for Eretz Israel in 1932, the spiritual life of the remaining Jewish community was concentrated around R. Naftali Herz Bachrach, shoichet and MoZ. But it also did not last long: in 1937 R. Naftali was arrested, sent to Smolensk jail, convicted, sentenced to death and executed the same year.

He was not the only victim of the giant wave of repressions inflicted by the Communist regime. Scores of Chislavichers were executed, imprisoned in jails and labor camps, deported to Siberia and other distant regions.

The same year the authorities issued the order prohibiting shchita at local slaughterhouse on the false pretext of "religious cult ceremony". The Jews appealed to the Central Executive Committee with petition asking to cancel this order, but to no avail.

But after the horrors of Bolshevik terror, the Jews of Chislavichi were destined to perish in the flames of Holocaust which came here with the outbreak of WW2.

The post-revolution and pre-war years were characterized with steady decrease of Jewish population. In search for better life, they dissipated in big cities of the endless country, finding their place in various fields - industry, military, science, art, medicine and politics. In 1939, the Jewish community of Chislavichi numbered 1,427 people, 27% of the total population.

The war came to Chislavichi in Summer 1941, bringing with it enormous weight of suffering. Many were called up to the army ranks and fell in fighting. Some were evacuated to the Eastern part of the country, exposed to harsh weather, poor living and hard working at military plants. Others were killed on the run by German shells and bombs. The German offensive started on 22nd of June 1941, and just in a month, on the 16th of July, the German troops entered the town. The Jews who did not succeed to flee eastward, stayed entrapped, doomed to their tragic fate.

In the beginning of September the Jews were summoned to the park, and after the meeting young men and girls were locked in the barn, there they were tortured and tormented for long time. Later this month the Jews were ordered to move into the Ghetto organized in poor houses in three Proletarsky streets. About 800 Jews lived in 40-50 houses, while the Gentiles moved into abandoned Jewish homes.

In the second half of September more Jews were put into the barn. Later some professionals (tailors, shoemakers, carpenters were released and transferred to the Ghetto). In the beginning of October all the rest (about 150 men, women and children) were shot to death (see Attachment 3).

In January 1942 the remained Jewish population was used for building fortifications. The construction was finished in February. On the 20th of March the Ghetto was liquidated, and the all Jews (about 800 officially, but in reality not less than 1000) shot by police squad from Mstislavl which arrived in Chislavichi for this purpose (see Attachment 4). After the execution Mstislavl police took with them 7 wagons loaded with robbed Jewish belongings. The rest was taken by local policemen.

Killings and atrocities were not finished with this execution, hunt for Jews continued. Some Jews who manage to escape, joined the partisans (guerrilla fighters) in the woods, few found place to hide in the houses of the Righteous ones in nearby villages, but the most were caught and shot at.

It is hard to know the total number of Jews perished in Chislavichi, it can be evaluated maybe as 1,200-1,500, this amount contains also Jews taken to Chislavichi from other places. According to the database of "Yad Vashem", the number of Chislavichi District residents (or born there) killed in the war in various places is about 2,000.

The names of the victims can be found at the website of "Yad Vashem" at THE CENTRAL DATABASE OF SHOAH VICTIMS' NAMES

At the end of the war 14 first families came back to Chislavichi from evacuation, after them - few more. They found their homes burned or occupied by strangers, their property stolen. They encountered a wall of silence from the locals. When asked, the only answer was that they "saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing". It was just like "Conspiracy of Silence" - only so one can explain how it can be that nobody saw or hear shooting, screaming of victims, boasting of the murderers - after all, the most of the Gentile population stayed intact, their life continued almost the same way as before the German's takeover. Some of them served in the police and took active part in robbing, beating, raping and killing their former neighbors. The hospital, the pharmacy, the mill worked like before, so did various artels (cooperative associations). The Kolchoz (collective farm) continued its activities, the Germans did not impose taxes on it, and the peasants were happy with that. They cared for their horses, calling them by the nicknames of killed Jews: "Talalem", "Khatul", etc. All the public lavatories were paved inside with the marble tombstones from the Jewish cemetery, with the gold inscriptions on visible side. The alleyways to the houses close to the cemetery were also paved with the marble tombstones. And the children at the sight of the returning Jews called out "Niedobitki (the ones who were not finished off) arrived!".

Some of them served policemen and took active part in extermination of their former neighbors

More information about Holocaust in Chislavichi and nearby shtetls can be found in the book by Iosif Tzynman "Babyi Yary Smolenshchiny"

I met one of the last Jewish families in Chislavichi in the course of our (with my father) trip there in the middle of the 1960s. It was the family of one of my grandfather's cousins, Benche (Benzion) Gurevich which included him and his second wife. As though I am seeing him before me today, I remember a hale old man with sad eyes full of tears. I do not know what he mourned then: the destroyed Temple, or the family perished in the Holocaust, or his young years, the previous life of a once Jewish shtetl, and now a big Russian village where he, Benche, was one of last representatives of the native population. The nearest minyan was in Pochinok, the district center 40-50 km from Chislavichi, and on every Yorzait Benche would harness a horse and ride to Pochinok to recite "Kaddish". After he came back, he would go to the cemetery. I remember this Jewish cemetery - upturned and broken monuments, graves covered with grass peacefully grazed by the goats coming here for breakfast. There was no monument, no marker on the hillock of the common grave shared by the Jews shot there. I remember that my father was extremely indignant about it. Upon our return, he wrote a letter about it to the official newspaper "Izvestia", from where the letter was forwarded to the Kalinin obkom (the regional committee of the Communist party) based on my father's place of residence! Only in 1968 did the authorities succumb to pressure, and permitted installation of a monument. Benche organized collection of donations, the cemetery was cleaned up and a monument, as it was mentioned above, was placed on the common grave. But not one Hebrew letter, not a sign that the slaughtered were Jews - only the dry customary words about "Soviet citizens fallen at the hands of the fascists".

The monument at the site of the common grave

At the common grave. In the center-Benche Gurevich

It would be superfluous for me to say that nothing about the outward appearance of Chislavichi reminded one of its Jewish past: the synagogues had been closed and destroyed, the Jewish kolhoz dissolved, even the forest where my father used to collect berries and mushrooms in his childhood cut down. Shabby wooden houses, dusty streets, a monument to Lenin, a club, a church. Wretchedness and neglect. Misery. Benche, who before the war had been Chairman of the Jewish kolhoz, now was a pensioner, his pension was about 20 rubles a month. My father and his cousin Tsiva sent him money every month, and he always answered with gratitude. I remember his house - a wooden isba (peasant hut), scarce furniture, and books, many books in a strange, unknown language with incomprehensible inscriptions - then I could identify neither Pentateuch, nor Talmud and Mishnayot. Benche died in the late 1970s, and I do not know whether he had any children fom his second marriage - apparently he did not. As far as I know, his widow left this place. For following decades the remaining Jews dissolved in the Gentile population and disappeared. So, there are no Jews left there now. Absolutely. The Jewish shtetl of Chislavichi does not exist any more.

Attachment 1.The article in the Smolensk Province newspaper “Worker’s Path”

Synagogue Replaced by Stockings Factory

October 27th, 1928

Chislavichi

Chislavichi Stockings Artel (workers’ cooperative) is the biggest one in Smolensk Province. Lately, there were 150 new applications to join it, in addition to the 200 Jewish families who are already members. But the Artel members are still forced to work at home because there is no suitable building in Chislavichi for a workshop.

Meanwhile, not only the life of several hundred working Jews depends on development of the stockings manufacturing industry, but also the continued development of the whole shtetl.

And so the working people and the Soviet public recently proposed that the building of the “Rovsshtibele” synagogue – one of the nine Chislavichi synagogues – be turned over to the collective of the Stockings Artel. Turning the synagogue over to the Artel would make it possible to electrify production and develop the factory into a major stockings manufacturing center, something for which all necessary prerequisites exist.

The meeting of the Stockings Artel members adopted unanimously the demand to turn over the synagogue’s building to the Artel.

Attachment 2. Excerpts from the report by the Evsektsiya of the Smolensk Regional Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

About the Fall Anti-Religious Campaign

November 1929

1. The work of preparation for the coming anti-religious fall campaign started at the end of August…

2. In all places meetings of the active part of the population were held with 350 delegates present; in Chislavichi 2 conferences of Jewish youth dedicated to anti-religious issues and the problems of socialist construction took place.

3. …………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. …………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. In the town of Roslavl, in Chislavichi and Shumyachi special youth meetings were held.

6. ......................................

7. Important anti-religious work was accomplished in all Jewish schools of socialist education, school meetings being attended by the schoolchildren together with their parents. All the schools operated during Jewish holidays.

8. With few exceptions, during religious holidays all the artels where mainly Jews were concentrated operated normally.

9. Donations for "Birobidjan" aircraft construction in the region totaled 918 rubles… In some places (Chislavichi) fund-rising for that purpose has not yet been completed.

10. In some localities torch marches took place on Yom Kippur eve.

11. ………………………………………………………………………………………………

12. The anti-religious campaign is proceeding with great enthusiasm. Significant changes in this area are clearly discernible. But in some locations misinterpretation of Party orders concerning anti-religious activity have occurred, at other locations anti-religious work was accompanied with administrative and suppressive measures directed against those who did not come to work on Saturday 6 October 1929. There also was an attempt in one school to expel 18 schoolchildren who did not come to school on 6 October. In the mestechko Chislavichi a woman worker in one of the Artels went insane after working on Yom Kippur, and the believers spread rumors that it had happened because she had been working on the Day of Atonement, and the same would be happen to the rest…

Attachment 3. An excerpt from the report by the Nazi Einsatzgruppe responsible for extermination of Jews in Chislavichi

Berlin,

October 9, 1941

50 copies

------------------

36th copy

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 108

Einsatzgruppe B

Location: Smolensk

Actions against functionaries, agents, saboteurs and Jews

...............

In Khoslavichi, the Jews living in the ghetto there, according to reports of the Russian population, tried to create panic by spreading false rumors to the effect that the Bolsheviks were supposed to be advancing. Furthermore, they threatened to take revenge after the return of the Bolsheviks. Thereupon, the Vorkommando sent a Kommando and liquidated 114 Jews.

...............

 

Attachment 4. Report written 5 days after Chislavichi had been liberated by the Red Army.

Act 2.10.1943

On atrocities of German Fascists in mestechko Chislavichi, Smolensk Region

The commission which included Major Erofeev, medical service Lieutenant-colonel Novikov, medical service Major Leikin, medical service Major Chelnozhin, Judge Advocate General Corps Major Khmalin, medical service Lieutenant Popova, secretary of the Communist Party District Committee Gaidge, Security Service Lieutenant Vachkin and the local residents have drafted the present act as follows:

In July of 1941 when the German troops invaded mestechko Chislavichi, they established a camp for all the Jewish population which occupied three streets. All the Jews - children as well as adults, had to wear a yellow armband with black center. The Jews were prohibited from leaving the camp. From the very beginning the Jews were abused, beaten, robbed. In October 1941 150 men were selected, allegedly for work. They were put on trucks, driven to the vicinity of the nearby MTS (machines and tractors station) and shot in a ditch.

In January 1942 some part of the Jewish population – young men and girls – also were put on trucks and driven off somewhere.

In March 1942 total extermination of the rest of the Jews – women, elderly people and children – took place. One morning they were herded to a ravine, 150 m northwest of the shtetl. All were ordered to get undressed and naked they were shot with rifles and submachine guns. Some people began to flee but were shot while running. The corpses stayed in the ravine unburied for more than two weeks, devoured by dogs.

On that day, according to local residents, not less than 800 Jews were exterminated. All Jewish-looking residents were shot.

Before World War II the Jews constituted about 40% of the entire population of Chislavichi. Now there was not a single Jew left, except a 12 year-old girl who was saved by the citizen Denisovich. And his wife and child – a baby – were shot by the Nazis.

All the executions were directed by the commandant Dolerman and his deputy, Meiss.

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