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Mass Grave Database - Based On Early Testemonies

Where vicitims are from, last know location Grodno
Town/county where mass grave is located Grodno
Mass Grave Location near the road to Sapotskin and by the fort and another area in a forest located a 15-minute ride away from the city - bodies exhumed and burned - left some buried on purpose (according to this witness's testimony about Bacieczki)
Date of Murder May-June 1944
Numer of Victims around 10,000 many women and children - few hundred Jews with patches on clothing, some Polish and Soviet soldiers in uniform
Names of Victims Mentioned
Full Testimony From Augustów we went to Grodno, where we worked for about 3 weeks. We were digging in two places: near the road to Sapotskin and by the fort, as well as in a forest located a 15-minute ride away from the city. The pits were mostly 3m deep. Work technique was the same. We dug out around 10,000 bodies in both places. The bodies were fresh, facial features still clearly recognizable. Some of them were completely naked, there were a lot of women and children. Some had their arms tied in front of them and eyes covered with a band. A few hundred Jews were in one of the pits - we recognized them from the patches on their clothes. Some of the places the Germans pointed at turned out to be empty after we dug them up. Local people probably had moved the bodies. In several pits we found Soviet cartridges, in another one we encountered bodies of two Polish soldiers, relatively well-preserved and dressed in full uniform. Machoł must have seen the pits before, because he knew what kind of bodies were where. During out stay, we lived in the Gestapo building in Grodno.
Testimony Number 301/547
page in longer testimony pages 5 and 6
Date of Testimony Bialystok September 6-7, 1944 (1945?)
Name of Witness Mojżesz Gerszuni a member of a special kommando responsible for burning the bodies from mass graves in order to cover up the traces
Current Country Belarus