Many Jews of the town of Dereczyn fled to Hołynka while heavy fighting for Dereczyn was taking place. On one of the first days of their occupation, the Germans assembled at the church square all the male Jews they found in Hołynka, selected 140 of them, and then killed them. According to one testimony, the Germans were looking for Soviet soldiers who had attempted to escape captivity by mingling with the village population and, therefore, they took the Jews whose heads were shaved. Indeed, this was a usual practice of the occupiers in Belorussia during the first days of the occupation. Other accounts say that the Germans either shot all these men on the spot and buried them om Slonimska Street, in the southeastern part of Hołynka, or that they killed only some of them on the spot and took the rest from the village, supposedly for work, and then shot them also. In any case, 140 male Jews were killed in Hołynka or its vicinity.

More information: Yad Vashem