On the eve of World War II, some 8000 Jews lived in Orsha, Belarus, out of a total population of 40,000. The Jews worked in factories, government institutions and agriculture. In the summer of 1938, there were two Yiddish schools. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, many of Orsha's Jews – and hundreds of thousands of Jews living in the western Soviet Union – managed to escape deeper into the Soviet Union by train, thus avoiding falling under German rule. Some of them were recruited to the Red Army, including Jakov Rodkin, who took this photograph.
From right, standing on the railway line: Josef Rodkin, Jakov’s brother. Standing next to him is Jakov and Josef’s sister, Liza. While serving in the Red Army, Jakov fell in battle on 30 January 1943.
In 1998, Josef submitted a Page of Testimony in memory of his brother Jakov.
On 16 July 1941, less than a month after the Rodkins' flight from Orsha, the town was occupied by the Germans. The murder of the Jews of Orsha began in August, and a ghetto was established in the town in September. The Germans murdered most of the ghetto's inhabitants in November, some 1,800 people, and other Jews, approximately 5,000 in total. Several dozen artisans and their families remained in the ghetto and were murdered later on. By spring 1942, all the Jews of Orsha had been murdered.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 7987