Šaškoǔka
In 1943, Belarusian partisans increasingly attacked the execution site in the Blahaǔščyna forest. As a reaction to this, as well as to "Aktion 1005" that started in the fall of 1943, a provisional crematorium was set up in the Šaškoǔka forest south of the camp.
Members of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union (ČGK) inspecting the Šaškoǔka extermination site
ČGK examining the temporary crematorium
Stretcher found by the ČGK when examining the temporary crematorium
The choice of the nearby Šaškoǔka forest was made on the assumption that the proximity to the well-guarded Maly Trascjanec camp site would prevent partisan attacks and thus allow the killing and burning operations to continue undisturbed in secret. In Šaškoǔka, the occupiers dug a three meter deep pit and laid railroad tracks on its bottom. The walls of the pit were clad in metal and the site was fenced off with a privacy screen. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Minsk prison inmates and civilian hostages were brought in trucks to the pit, shot and directly burned to leave no trace of the killings. In search of gold teeth and other valuable objects, forced laborers had to sift through the ashes of the murdered people and grind up their bones.1
When the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union (ČGK) arrived in July 1944, they found the crematorium covered with sand. In a final act of removing traces, the German occupiers tried to cover up the extent of the murders that had taken place here. Empty shell casings, incendiary bombs and tar were also found at the site.
Responsible for content: Paulin Wandschneider
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1 Cf. Kohl, Trostenez, p. 248; Rentrop, Maly Trostenez, in: Benz/Distel (Hrsg.), Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, p. 581f.