Ivacevičy ( be, Івацэ́вічы, russian: Ивацевичи, pl, Iwacewicze, lt, Ivasevičai) is a city in the Brest Province of

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 ...

, an administrative center of the Ivacevičy district.

Sports

Belarusian football club FC Ivatsevichi was based in here in 2018

World War II

Within 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 partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...

, Ivatsevitshy was part of Nowogródek Voivodeship. In 1795, the town was acquired by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

in the course of the

Third Partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Poli ...

From 1921 until 1939, Ivatsevichy (''Iwacewicze'') was a provincial city in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

, the seat of Kosów county with the population of around 1,500. It belonged to

Polesie Voivodeship Polesie Voivodeship ( pl, województwo poleskie) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939), named after the historical region of Polesia. It was created by the Council of Ministers of the Second Polish Republic on February 19, ...

region of eastern

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

, with a notable Jewish population. In September 1939, Ivatsevichy was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

. Following the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

, the number of Jews in Ivatsevichy greatly increased due to influx of refugees from the Nazi-occupied western part of Poland. Ivatsevichy was occupied by Nazi Germany from 24 June 1941 until 12 July 1944 and administered as a part 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 Nazis carried out mass executions of Jews at the Żwirownia gravel pit nearby. Under a strong German guard, Jews were marched out of town and separated into smaller groups. They were shot in waves over the already dug-out pits. Before 1944, the Nazis executed there more than a thousand innocent victims including prisoners of war. In 1941 soon after the Nazi takeover of Ivatsevichy, a ghetto was set up for about 600 Jews. They were fed starvation rations and forced to perform slave labor. On 14 March 1942 the ghetto was liquidated. All inmates were marched on foot to the

Słonim Ghetto The Słonim Ghetto ( pl, getto w Słonimiu, be, Слонімскае гета, german: Ghetto von Slonim, yi, סלאָנים) was a Nazi ghetto established in 1941 by the SS in Slonim, Western Belarus during World War II. Prior to 1939, the t ...

, and over the course of several months murdered there. After the liberation, in Soviet Belarus the area of the mass graves in Ivatsevichy was used to extract sand. During mining, the bones of the dead were constantly being unearthed, until finally in the 1960s, a stone memorial was placed at the pits, marking the already mined graves.

References

External links

Portal of Ivatsevichy District

Ivatsevichy City Forum

Photos on Radzima.org
{{Coord, 52, 43, N, 25, 20, E, region:BY_type:city, display=title Cities in Belarus Grodno Governorate Holocaust locations in Belarus Ivatsevichy District Nowogródek Voivodeship (1507–1795) Polesie Voivodeship Populated places in Brest Region