On the 26th July 1941 the Germans captured the city of Mogilev, a district capital in what is now Belarus. About 50% of the inhabitants were Jewish, part of an ancient community that dated back to the 14th century. The Germans undertook the usual ‘special measures’ against them – and in the early stages a German photographer was on hand to take a series of photographs for propaganda purposes.
It appears that meanwhile the women and children were being evicted from their homes. These barefoot peasants were the ‘enemies of the Reich’. It is known that the Jewish community was at first ordered into ghettoes. However Einsatzgruppen ‘B’ soon arrived and began systematically shooting the entire Jewish population that remained in the town.
When the Wehrmacht and the SS conducted a joint ‘seminar’ on anti Partisan operations on 24th September 1941 there were no Jews left in Mogilev. As part of a practical exercise during the seminar they went looking for ‘Partisans’ in the local area. They could find no strangers or partisans in the nearby village of Knjashizy, so they shot 32 Jews instead.