Zmievskaya Balka

Zmievskaya Balka (Russian: Змиёвская балка) is a site in Rostov-on-Don, Russia at which 27,000 Jews and Soviet civilians were massacred by the German military on August 11 and 12, 1942.

The Jewish men of Rostov were marched to Zmiyovskaya Balka, a ravine outside the city, and shot. The women, children and elderly were gassed in trucks, and their bodies buried in the same ravine. Communists and Red Army soldiers also were killed and buried there, along with their families.

Zmiyovskaya Balka, which means "the ravine of the snakes", has become the site of annual memorial ceremonies.

Notable victims

 * Sabina Spielrein, prominent early Soviet psychoanalyst