Alternate names: Belitsa [Rus], Bielica [Pol, Bel], Bilitza [Yid], Belitza, Belitzah, Belica, Russian: Белица. Belarusian: Беліца. Hebrew: בליצע. Located at 53°39' N, 25°19' E, 21 miles W of Navahrudak (Nowogródek), 16 miles S of Lida. 1900 Jewish population: 679.
Yizkor Pinkas Bielica (Tel Aviv, 1968).
- ShtetLink.
- LitvakSIG
- JewishGen Belarus SIG
- Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), I, pp. 211-212: "Bielica" #1.
- Shtetl Finder (1989), p. 7: "Bilitza, Belitza".
- Pinkas HaKehilot, Poland, Vol. 8 (2005), pp. 168-170: "Bielica".
- Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), p. 145: "Bielica".
- Еврейская энциклопедия (1906-1913), "Белица, местечко".
- Book of Belitsa/Bielica [Aug 2015] contents listing
- Stored Treasures By Minnie Crane, Smadar Belkind Gerson "A deeply personal, beautifully simple and inspiring memoir. This joint work is written by two women separated by four generations. Minnie Crane lived through two world wars, pandemics and the Great Depression. Thirty years after her death her tale is brought to life in a way only her great-granddaughter could do. Minnie came from an extremely humble beginning and made huge sacrifices. Her telling account sheds light on the story of Belitsa, a little town in Russian, now part of Belarus, a Jewish community obliterated by the Nazis. It also traces immigration of many Jews to America at the turn of the twentieth century. This inspirational narrative makes history very personal."
- see Zhetl: The Ghetto [Aug 2015]
- USHM Collection for Belitsa [Aug 2015]
CEMETERY:
"...the abandoned Jewish cemetery in Belitsa, which is almost 54 [sic] centuries old. Belitsa was once a Jewish settlement and at this time there are no Jews there. We organize Voskresniki (hours of unpaid labour) to clean the territories around the memorials, to fix them in case of vandalism. In February 2001 Zenon Bunko reported about the place where Jews from Lida and Vilnius were buried. We needed two and a half years to gather proofs, documents and to find sponsors. On the 13th of August 2003 the monument was opened. Boris Golubovich gave money for the fence (8mx22m) around this "third ditch". And Lida's painter and sculpter Richard Grusha put into the monument his talent and a great sum of his own money. Source: [February 2004]
Belitsa (LDRG) - Regional Special Interest Groups [March 2008]
photos. [Oct 2014]
photos. photos. [February 2010]
MASS GRAVE:
- pictures of site of execution of 36 Jews from Belitza on July 23, 1941. [Aug 2015]
Photos courtesy of Andrei Burdenkov [August 2016]
[UPDATE] Investigation of execution site by Yahad-in-Unum [August 2017]