Contemporary account of the killings in Maly Trascjanec

The "Aufbau" magazine about Maly Trascjanec

The quote is from 1944 and from the "Aufbau" magazine - one of the most important Jewish magazines of the German-speaking Jewish exile in the USA:

“[...] All highly skilled workers [...] were taken to a penal camp and then to Trascjanec, eight miles away from Minsk. This was the death camp for Czech, German and Austrian Jews. In total, 39,000 Jews were transported to Trascjanec during 1942. From each group of 1000 only 5 to 30, and only skilled workers, were allowed to live. In total, 500 people were spared in Trascjanec. They were employed to sort the clothes of the murdered Jews for shipment to Germany."[1]

The number of people murdered in Maly Trascjanec can no longer be precisely determined[2]. It was assumed that about 150,000 people were murdered in Blahauščyna, 50,000 in Šaškouka and 6,500 on the Trascjanec estate. Today it is assumed that fewer people died. The yellow signs in the forest of Blahauščyna commemorate the murdered.

Click on the photo to reach further pictures of the "Forest of Names"

Sources:

[1] Winfried R. Garscha: "Ein unermüdliches Beharren auf Empirie und Nüchternheit". In: Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstands (Hrsg.), Jahresbuch 2019: Deportation und Vernichtung - Maly Trostinec, Vienna 2019, p. 68.

[2] Cf. zu den Opferzahlen Gerlach, Morde, p. 770f. und Rentrop, Tatorte, p. 226f.