Хроника страшных дней

A history of the Holocaust in Vitebsk, partly based on survivors' accounts. 37,000 Jews lived in the city prior to the war; only a handful survived. There was an evacuation from Vitebsk in June-July 1941; however, the Jews were poorly informed about the military situation and the Nazi policy, and ca. 16,000 of them remained in the city. The Germans occupied Vitebsk on 9-11 July 1941. They carried out a registration of Jews, established a Jewish Council, introduced forced labor, and in August 1941 established a ghetto. Describes numerous group shootings of Jews carried out both by the military and the SS, as well as conditions in the ghetto. In October 1941, Einzatskommando 9, headed by Filbert, brought most of the Jews to anti-tank ditches near the village of Ilovka and shot them. The shootings continued until early November 1941. Describes many cases of non-Jews who helped or hid Jews. In 1962, Filbert and his accomplices were tried in Berlin. In 1993, monuments were erected at the site of the former ghetto and in Ilovka. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)