On February 5, 1942, an SS unit arrived in Gusino. During the night, a huge pit was dug at the Jewish cemetery. The next day, February 6, 1942, at dawn, the Jews were driven to cemetery. The sick were thrown into sleighs and brought to the pit. Then the mass shooting began. Those who tried to escape were caught and shot. Thus, according to different sources, between 176 and 270 people – among them women, children and the elderly – were killed. Only three girls from the Gusino Jewish community survived. Two of them had worked as home cleaners in the house of a doctor of Austrian origine. Before the shooting began he insisted that they escape to the forest, where they joined a partisan unit. One Jewish mother had locked her two children in a cellar before the shooting. The boy left the shelter and went outside, where he was caught by the Germans and shot. The girl remained in hidingand later left the town also to join a partisan unit.

More information: Yad Vashem