Grodno. A memorial sign of the ghetto on Zamkovaya Street.

In Grodno, on Zamkovaya Street between buildings No. 5 and No. 7, there is a memorial sign and a memorial plaque dedicated to the tragic events of the Great Patriotic War. The monument was erected in 1991. 

A ghetto was located in this area during the Nazi occupation in 1941-1943. In the summer of 1941, half of Grodno's population were Jews. It was 18,000 people. All Jews were ordered to sew the star of David sign on their clothes. In July 1941, 80 people of the most respected in the Jewish community were taken out of the city and killed. Two ghettos were created in Grodno.

Ghetto No. 1 was created in the historical center of the Old City near the castle around the great ancient synagogue. The entrance to the ghetto was located on Zamkova Street. The area of the ghetto was less than one square kilometer and 15,000 prisoners were held here. The ghetto existed in this quarter from November 1941 until the spring of 1943. A two-meter fence was erected around the ghetto. In Grodno, 42,000 Jews were kept in two ghettos for all time. More than twenty thousand people died.

By the spring of 1943, the ghetto in Grodno was destroyed and the city, according to German reports, became "Judenfreu" - "free of Jews." To this day, some names of Nazis and collaborators who carried out murders and punitive actions have been preserved.

The commandant of ghetto No. 1, Kurt Wiese, was found and arrested after the war. In 1967, he was sentenced to life in prison.

Photographs of the Grodno ghetto during the Nazi occupation have been preserved to this day.