Memorial in Šaškoŭka (1966)

ČGK examining Šaškoŭka

From October 1943, the perpetrators of the Maly Trascjanec extermination site used the Šaškoŭka forest as a new place of execution. A memorial stone has commemorated the people murdered here since 1966.

In the autumn of 1943, a temporary crematorium was set up in Šaškoŭka to replace the Blahaǔščyna forest, which had previously been used mainly as an execution site. It became the main murder site of the German occupiers near Maly Trascjanec. At the end of 1944, the orphanage "Remembrance of the Trostenets Victims" was built next to the forest for the children whose parents were murdered by the German occupying forces. According to eyewitness reports, the dishes of the deported Jews were used there.¹ Today the forest is called Galinovski.

Memorial stone in the Šaškoŭka forest

In the course of the first memorialisation efforts in the 1960s, a memorial stone was erected at the historic site of the former crematorium in 1966. As well as the Memorials at the historic location of the barn (1961) and in Vjaliki Trascjanec(1963), this memorial stone follows the Soviet narrative of remembrance and describes the victims as peaceful Soviet citizens.²

When erecting a new memorial with the aim of creating a pan-European memorial landscape, the start of the third construction phase of the memorial complex was planned for 2019 with the construction of a new memorial site in the Šaškoŭka forest. However, the redesign has not yet been implemented (as of September 2021).³

Inscription on the memorial stone in Šaškoŭka:

"This is the place where the fascist executioners burned peaceful Soviet civilians."