On October 9 (October 21, according to other sources), 1941, an order of the local chief of the Belarusian police was publicized, requring all the Jews in the Chausy ghetto and from some small neighboring villages to pack their belongings, supposedly in preparation for their transfer to the kolkhoz at Dranukha, situated five kilometers from the town. Accompanied by Germans and members of the local police, the local Jews were taken by foot, with their belongings loaded on carriages behind them. At one of the forks in the road the carriages turned left while the people were taken to the right, toward the ravine. The ravine was located at a former shooting range, near the Pronya River, about two kilometers from the village of Dranukha. At the same time the Germans brought to the same site the Jews of Dranukha - on the pretext that they would be resettled in Chausy. When the Jews from both places arrived at the site, they were all shot to death. During the shooting a teacher named Dora Kagan uttered defiant remarks to the killers before she was shot. According to Soviet sources, 624 people were murdered in this operation.

More information: Yad Vashem