On August 25, 1941 the Jews of Dzerzhinsk were ordered to gather in the center of the town and were taken to the recruiting office, which was surrounded by barbed wire. A large number of Jews were crowded into the building of the office; others were kept outside in the rain. Some time later the Germans collected 52 young Jewish males under the pretext of sending them to perform physical labor. They brought them to a forest (sometimes referred to as a park), located about 2.5 kilometers from the center of the town, and ordered them to dig three pits. After this work was completed, the young men were ordered to undress, forced to stand on a board laid across one of the pits, and then shot. Later, other Jewish men were brought to the pits and shot in a similar manner. Possibly the third pit was not large enough or, perhaps, the Germans were tired; in any case, at 6 p.m. they permitted women with three or more children to leave the recruiting office. Other women, who assumed that the Germans intended to murder those who remained, tried to send their children back to the town together with the women who had many children of their own. Later the women with two children were also released and, finally, even women with one child were permitted to go. The old women and those who had no children or who had already sent their children back to town were shot in the same pits in the forest. According to different sources, between 549 and 800 Jews were murdered that day in the forest by the Sued police regiment with the assistance of local collaborators.

More information: Yad Vashem

The Jews who remained alive after the first mass murder on August 25 returned to the town. Later they were incarcerated in the kolkhoz power-saw building, which was surrounded with barbed wire. The second murder operation took place on October 18, 1941 (according to another source, October 25), when 583 to 850 additional Dzerzhinsk Jews were taken to the public garden located not far from the first murder site and murdered in three pits. With the assistance of local policemen the Germans first took the women to the murder site, then they took the children.

More information: Yad Vashem

About 100 Jews who had managed to flee during the mass murder of October 18 (according to another source, October 25) 1941 and had hidden in the town or the vicinity were caught and killed by local policemen in November or the first days of December, near the clay pit west of the town.

More information: Yad Vashem

The Germans permitted Jews with certain professions to remain in the town. However, on December 7, 1941 another selection took place at the former recruiting office and 168 Jews, including some of the specialists and members of their families, were taken on foot or by truck to the area of the former airport near the village of Romanovka, where deep shell-holes had remained after the bombing of the area in July of 1941. The Jews were shot there.

More information: Yad Vashem