Memorial Rededicated for Jews Murdered by Nazis in Rudnya, Russia

Tuesday, the eve of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and of the 84th anniversary of the day on which the Kedoshim of the city of Rudnya, located in the Smolensk region of Russia, were led to their tragic deaths by the Nazis, with many of them buried alive. It also marks sixty years after their burial place was moved from the massacre site to the Jewish cemetery of Rudnya, located directly on the road leading to the town of Lubavitch. A ceremony was held to rededicate the memorial site where the names of hundreds out of the thousands of Jewish residents of the town are immortalized.

Walking at the head of the Jews as they were led to their deaths were the holy Chassidim Rabbi Yehoshua Laine, of whom the Rebbe Rashab said, “Yehoshua is mine”, as well as Rabbi Shimon Hoffman, who served as the Rav of the community.

The city of Rudnya was occupied by the Nazis several weeks after the German invasion of Russia, in the summer of 1941. The German army was constantly advancing, and even the Katyusha missile, which was used for the first time in history during the occupation of Rudnya, did not deter the Nazis who occupied the area. After a short time they herded the Jews into a ghetto which was so crowded that several families were forced to live in one house. In the first days of their rule in Rudnya, the Nazis selected about five hundred young Jews who were fit for work, and sent them under heavy guard, ostensibly to work. That group never returned and their fate is unknown to this very day. The local population supported the Nazis, and helped them suppress and exterminate the Jews. At the end of the month of Tishrei 1919, the Nazi ghetto guards ordered the Jews to the ouskirts of the city, where they forced them into anti-tank trenches and murdered them Al Kiddush Hashem. Many were buried alive, and those who tried to escape were shot to death. Among those killed was the chossid Rabbi Yehoshua Laine, along with his wife and their young children.

The event was organized by the Rudnya District Administration and the District Governor Mr. Yuri Ivanovich Ivashkin. Many local residents, Jews from the nearby cities Smolensk and Vitebsk, and distinguished guests came to honor the memories of the Jews buried at the Memorial site. In attendance were Rabbi Yitzhak HaKohen Kogan, Head of Agudas Chabad of the CIS and Rabbi of the “Boloshaya Bronya” community in Moscow; Rabbi Gavriel Gordon, the shliach to the village of Lubavitch; the philanthropist Mr. Baruch Ben Zion Gurovitz; and members of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress who participated in the expenses of the renovation and development of the memorial site.

The greetings of Rabbi Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, who was unable to personally attend the event, were conveyed by Rabbi Levi Mondshine, Rabbi of Smolensk and the region. Rabbi Mondshine also led the assembled in Tehillim and Kel Mela Rachamim in memory of the Kdoshim.

Rabbi Yehoshua Raskin, a respected member of the Moscow Jewish community and a grandson of the Chossid Rabbi Yehoshua Laine, was honored to recite the Kaddish in memory of the Kdoshim. With great emotion, he shared with the audience the awesome discovery, revealed by those involved in the transfer and reburial of the kdoshim 23 years later, that the body of his holy grandfather was found intact as on the day of his burial, with a radiant face and the holy Tehillim still in his hand.

After the official event ended, the delegation of guests continued to Lubavitch to daven at the Ohel of the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek and his son the Rebbe Maharash. They then sat down to Farbreng in memory of the kdoshim and to commemorate their yohrtzeit.