During the first days of the occupation, local Jews began to discuss their predicament, since they were already aware of the way the occupiers treated Jews. In late July 1941, the local German commandant arrested the four Jews who were reported to be responsible for these discussions, and took them to the local Jewish cemetery. There, the victims were shot and buried in a pit that they had been forced to dig.

More information: Yad Vashem

During the period from November 1941 to March 1942, the ghetto inmates were shot in small groups. Their exact murder site is unknown. On November 7, 1941, the Germans publicly hanged a young Jewish woman, Basya Malik, who had originally come from Lithuania, and whose husband was serving in the Red Army. On March 8, 1942, the remaining Jews of Opochka, numbering 90-100, were led through the town along the road to the village of Varygino. Other sources indicate that the Jews were taken to the murder site along the road to the village of Maslovo. On the outskirts of the forest (some sources identify it as the forest of the village of Varygino), they were shot and buried in a common grave. Later, in the autumn of 1943, in an attempt to erase all traces of the massacre, a special German Kommando exhumed the grave and burned the bodies of the Jewish victims. The cremation took two days, and the site of the pyre was surrounded by a reinforced guard.

More information: Yad Vashem