According to the data of 1939, 19.7 thousand Jews lived in the city. It is unknown how many of them were drafted into the Red Army, and how many managed to evacuate. The 1941 information on Mogilev and surrounding areas has been preserved. By the beginning of the German invasion, the total population was estimated at 187 thousand people. Of these, 20.5 thousand were Jews.

Mogilev was captured on July 26, 1941. Over the two years and 11 months of occupation, the commandant’s service that owned the power changed several times here.

From the first days, the invaders introduced discriminatory measures. The Jews were deprived of medical care, the opportunity to use the dairy kitchen, had to wear decals, observe curfews. The local population was forbidden to trade with Jews.

The occupation authorities created a Judenrat and a “Jewish police” of 15 people. Since the beginning of August, the population has been registered. According to the report of the mayor Felitsin, there were 6.4 thousand Jews in the city, including more than 2 thousand children. Not all Jews went through the procedure, as evidenced by recent reports of raids and executions of people without registration.

In August 1941, the first executions of those whom the invaders considered capable of leading the resistance took place. About 80 people were executed.

The order for resettlement in the ghetto is dated August 13, 1941. During the occupation in Mogilev, the ghetto was located in several places. Until the end of September 1941 it was in the region of Podnikolye, and then it was moved to Bykhov district near the embankment of the Dubrovenka River. After the liquidation of the ghetto on the territory of the Dimitrov factory, the Nazis kept from 1 to 1.5 thousand Jewish artisans.

Jews from the villages of Knyazhytsy, Vorotynshchina, and Seltso got into the closed Mogilev ghetto.

The destruction of the ghetto took place in several stages. In early October 1941, the Nazis shot 2.2 thousand people. Of these, more than 60 were directly in the ghetto, and the rest were in the area of ​​the Jewish cemetery.

Since October 19, 1941, executions took place in the area of ​​the villages of Kazimirovka and Novopashkovo. Here, the Nazis killed 3.7 thousand people. After the war, the place of mass execution was discovered in the area of ​​the village of Polynkovichi. 4.8 thousand people died here. The exact date of the action has not been established.

In the area of ​​the Dimitrov factory, the invaders created a camp of workers from workshops of Jewish nationality. They were used not only for work in the specialty, but also for burials of psychiatric patients killed by gas. It is known that in May 1942, four hundred Jews from the city of Slonim were brought to the camp. According to the partisans, in September 1943 there were about 500 people in the camp. Of these, more than 270 were sent to Majdanek.

Before the retreat in the autumn of 1943, the Nazis destroyed the remains of the executed. In October 1944, the Extraordinary State Commission recorded the murder of 10 thousand Jews. The statistics did not include the inhabitants of the factory camp.

In total, according to researchers, about 12 thousand Jews were killed in Mogilev.