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Ghetto in Nevel, Pskov region, Russia

A photo catalog of the burials of this cemetery is available at the LINK 

Nevel is a city in the Pskov region of Russia. Jews have settled here since the 17th century. By 1939, 3.1 thousand Jews lived in Nevel. They made up 20% of the local population. No information about those drafted into the army and evacuated has survived.

According to the recollections of a ghetto prisoner Leiser Itkin, after the first bombings in the summer of 1941, some of the Jews tried to leave the city and run after the retreating army. Two days later, they were caught up by German motorcyclists and forced to return.

The city was captured on July 15, 1941. The occupation lasted until October 1943. The Nazis conducted a registration of the Jewish population five days after taking control of the city. Representatives of the occupation authorities issued decals to all registered Jews, which they had to wear on their backs. The Jews were also forced to wear white armbands on their sleeves. By orders of the occupation authorities, Jews were prohibited from any contact with the Russian population of Nevel.

Ghetto in Nevel was one of the first organized by the Nazis on the territory of Russia. The order for its creation is dated August 7, 1941. The Jews were ordered to move with their belongings two kilometers from the city on the territory of the Golubaya Dacha Park. To reassure the victims, the Nazis explained that they were preparing them to be sent to Palestine.

According to eyewitnesses, on the way to the ghetto, when crossing the bridge over the Emenka River, the Germans pushed the weak into the water.

Ghetto in Nevel was of a closed type: it was surrounded by a fence, and the entrance was guarded. The prisoners were not fed. Sometimes sympathetic locals brought in the food. The Nazis used Jews from the ghetto for peat mining.

The first documented shooting took place on September 4, 1941. The Nazis killed more than 70 men on charges of organizing arson. On the same day, according to the testimony of the German soldier G. Kilgorn, about 600 women were shot two kilometers from the city. They were blindfolded, pushed into an anti-tank ditch, and then shot.

The next organized shooting took place on September 6, 1941. The Nazis surrounded the ghetto. The prisoners were put into trucks and taken to the place of execution. As on September 4, victims were thrown into ditches and then shot. According to eyewitnesses, some of the Jews were buried alive and at the place of execution, the ground moved for several more days.

It is also known about the hunt for Jews who were hiding in the city after the destruction of the ghetto and the shooting of the Jews of Nevel near the village of Borki. An extraordinary state commission established that the Nazis killed 2,000 Jews in the Nevel region.