Šaškouka Crematorium

Due to its proximity to the Trascjanec estate and the need to dispose of the corpses, the Šaškouka "crematorium" became the most important place of execution at the extermination site. The cremation pits of the "crematorium" were nine meters wide and long and two to three meters deep. On all sides earth had been thrown up, only on one side was the earth sloped. Tree trunks served to stabilize the walls of the pits. In Šaškouka, the majority of those murdered were probably non-Jewish Belarusian prisoners of war and civilians.

With the approaching front in 1944, the number of killings at the Šaškouka pits increased. As the Red Army approached Minsk, the commander of the security police, Heinrich Seetzen, had all the prisoners shot. Among them were all those "fit for work" as well as the inmates of the police prison.

Since the "crematorium" was no longer sufficient for the killings, the victims of the last killing operations were driven in trucks to the barns of the Trascjanec estate. At the barns, the prisoners were driven out of the transports and shot. Then the barns were burned down with all the dead in them. This killing process was also described by Stepanida Savinskaya, who was very lucky to escape alive:

"Our car drove up to the barn. [...] By this time the barn was almost completely filled with corpses. [...] By the way, after each shooting, the Germans put logs covered with petrol and threw some hand grenades." [1]

Source:

[1]Rentrop, Petra: Tatorte der „Endlösung“. Das Ghetto Minsk und die Vernichtungsstätte Maly Trostinez. Berlin: Metropol. 2011. p. 225f.