Ilya, Belarus
| Ilya Ільля | |
|---|---|
|
Church in Ilya | |
  Ilya Location in Belarus | |
| Coordinates: 54°25′03″N 27°17′36″E / 54.41750°N 27.29333°ECoordinates: 54°25′03″N 27°17′36″E / 54.41750°N 27.29333°E | |
| Country |
 Belarus |
| Voblast | Minsk Voblast |
| Raion | Vileyka Raion |
| Founded | before 1475 |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
Ilya (or Il'ya, Belarusian: Ільля, Russian: Илья, Polish: Ilia) was a significantly Jewish village in Belarus, first mentioned in historical records dating from 1475. Between the end of World War I and 1939 it was part of Poland.
Ilya was featured in Episode 3 of the TV series Who Do You Think You Are?, the subject of which was Lisa Kudrow, in which she discovered what happened to the Jews who lived in Ilya during WWII (one of whom was her great grandmother).[1] They were marched from their homes to a pit in the middle of the town. There, German soldiers lined them up three or four at a time at the edge of the pit and shot them, resulting in them falling into it. According to a witness statement disclosed during the programme, oil was then poured over the stricken victims and ignited. Locals were said to have heard the screams from those who survived shooting dying in the flames for hours afterwards. There is a mass grave in Ilya for the Jews who died in this incident.
References
- ↑ Daily Mail article