Investigation visit n° 28 to Ukraine
Dates: November 4-20, 2011 – a two-week mission
Regions: administrative regions of Nikolayev and Odessa
Participants: Patrice Bensimon (team leader and interviewer, November 4-11), Andrej Umansky (team leader and interviewer, 12-20 November), Jessica Solis (assistant), Svetlana Biryukova (interpreter I), Natalia Mukasseeva (interpreter II, November4-10), Natalia Kekuch (investigator), Mikhaïl Strutinski (ballistics expert/investigator), David Grinberg (cameraman), Markel Redondo (photographer), Vassili Senenky (driver I) and Nazar Lenekh (driver II).
Studied towns and villages: Peshchtany, Brod, Stavki, Kudriavtisvka, Kolossivka, Vinogradivke, Bondoriovka, Novopavlivka, Zielone, Kutuzivska, Mikhaïlivka, Novogregorivka, Vessele, Nikolaievka (formerly part of Vessele), Mostove, Iastrebinove, Dmitrivka, Stepanivka, Rumynskoie, Novossiolovka, Novo-Alexandrivka, Ursulovka, Sovkhoz Tymyriazieva, Sukhaya Balka, Zabara, Poriechie.
In the course of this investigation visit, the Yahad team interviewed 60 witnesses, and found 28 shooting sites, most of which had no memorial.
From November 4 to November 20, a Yahad in Unum team went to Ukraine for a 28th investigation visit, the second one in the region of Odessa and the third in the region of Nikolayev.
Historical background
As early as the beginning of November 1941, virtually all the Jews living in the region had been killed. What matters is that this region was occupied not by German troops, but by Romanian ones. Another particularity of this region was the high number of German villages inhabited by Volkdeutsche. One of the missions of Einstazgruppe D (EG D), apart from annihilating Jews, was to observe these villages. For Himmler, this region was ideal for colonization because of the presence of German villages.
One key role in this region was played by Sonderkommando R (SK R), which had been created shortly after the attack on the USSR. This commando saw to the transfer of Volkdeutsche to the territories controlled by the Reich. It was composed of 160 permanent members, accompanied by 200 persons of the NKK (Union of National-Socialist Drivers). SK R took up the mission of looking after these Germans. They first conducted a census, which found 130,000 Volkdeutsche in 228 villages. They were given apartments, schools… Then they started recruiting Germans to create troops that were called Selbstschutz. The personnel of this Selbstschutz had no proper military training.
Shortly after it was created, the Selbstschutz started hunting the former neighbours who were close to the Bolsheviks, as well as local Jews who had not been killed by EG D. At the administrative level, SK R and the Selbstschutz played a key role in the region of Transnistria, which, like the whole territory on the left bank of the Bug, belonged to Romania. Only in June 1942 did the SS manage through negotiations with the Rumanians to get administrative control on the Selbstschutz in this region. This is why until then the Selbstschutz was able to play a decisive role in the extermination of Jews in Transnistria. It had become a parallel institution to EG D, which for its part had no power in this region (because of the Rumanian administration).
The extermination of Jews by the Selbstschutz is linked to the events in Odessa. In the winter of 1941-1942, the Rumanians had a major problem with the creation of a ghetto in Odessa. The simple solution to the lodging, food and healthcare problems was to expel the Jews from the occupied territories. The Jews were thus transferred by the Rumanian constabulary to the Volkdeutsche’s territories. The Jews who fell down unconscious on the side of the road were to be “finished off by the Selbstschutz.”
However, most of the expelled Jews were led to the North East, to the Generalkommisariat of Nikolayev. In the vicinity of Voznessensk, on the border of the German administrative territory, where the Bug was too wide to cross without difficulty, the Jew stopped and waited for their fate on the territory of the commandos in Lichtenfeld and Rastatt.
This visit aimed at identifying the execution sites and finding witnesses of the extermination of the Odessa Jews in the region of the Volkdeutsche.
The operating mode was almost always the same. The Rumanians chased the Odessa Jews to the North on the roads linking villages. Sometimes they kept them for a few days in barns, hen-houses or stables, before they went on to the three main execution sites: Domanevka, Bogdanovka and Akhmetovka. The Jews who could no longer walk were shot on the spot and thrown down with those who had succumbed to starvation or to the cold into graves that had been dug up by requisitioned locals. But most of the time groups of Jews were kept at those places (autumn-winter 1941). As they suffered from hunger and the cold, they received food from the villagers, sometimes in exchange for valuables. Finally, a German commando accompanied by Rumanian policemen executed the Jews in a ravine, a natural hollow or a pit that had been especially dug up.
In virtually all sites, witnesses have been identified. Most of them could report not only the place of the executions and the way they were carried out, but also the places where the Jews had stayed before the executions. Three local examples (Novopavlivka, Kozubovka Iastrebinove) have been selected here to illustrate how the Jews were exterminated in this region.
First example: Novopavlivka
Jews were brought on foot from Berezovka and locked up in stables. Most of them came from Odessa, and there were men, women, children and old people. The witness’s mother cooked for the Jews, and the witness brought the food. They stayed for a month, in winter. Some Jews tried to hide in houses. They were hunted out of these houses and shot in the inner yard; then their bodies were taken to the silo pit. Locals were requisitioned for this job. They would load some 10 bodies on a sledge. People were also requisitioned to take the weaker Jews of the columns from one village to another on sledges. Once the village had been reached, the Jews were get to get down and the sledge went back. No one expected the Jews in the village where they arrived. There is the story of the policeman who took Jews on a sledge, abandoned them where the snow was thickest and then hurried away with their belongings. The frozen bodies were taken to the silo pit, next to the cemetery.
| Nikolai Markovitch K., born 1927, said: Some Jews came from Odessa in the winter of 1941. There were men, women, children and old people. My mother would cook for the Jews and I would bring them the food. They stayed for a month, in winter. We accommodated a boy in our house for a week, until we were denounced and the constables came for him. Something similar happened to a girl with another family. In such cases, these people were forced out of the house and shot in the yard of the house where they had been hiding. Then the bodies were taken to the silo pit. Locals were requisitioned to do this. They would load some 10 bodies on the sledge. Outside the farm, approximately 20 or 30 persons were shot, and they too were taken to the silo pit. I was requisitioned with others to take the weaker ones of the column from our village to another. I went to the farm with my sledge to pick up the Jews surrounded by Germans and we set out for Novogrigorivka. The column was 20 – 30 meters long. Without the witness noticing, the Germans took the last persons of the column, led them behind trees and shot them. Once the next village had been reached, the Jews were made to get down out of the sledge, which then went away. No one expected the Jews in the village where they arrived. On my way back, I could see a stake where bodies were burning – the ones of the people who had been separated from the column. |
Second example: Kozubovska
In winter, Jews were brought from all the neighbouring villages. They were gathered in sheepfolds not far from the village. Those were very large sheepfolds, and they were filled up. The buildings were guarded by policemen, not Rumanians.
Ukrainians secretly brought bread to the Jews during the day. Many children died, and people also froze to death. The Jews themselves would load the bodies on a sledge and bury them in the neighbouring garden.
One night, the policemen took the Jews to a ravine in the forest, and they also brought straw. They laid down the straw on the bottom of the ravine and they shot. The victims fell down on the straw. They shot with machine guns. The witness could see everything from far, from her house. The villagers were surprised by screams. This was what drove them out of their houses to see what was going on. After this, the bodies were burned, and by dawn everything was over.
Third example: Iastrebinove
In winter, they brought a column of Jews who had been walking from Odessa. They were men, women, children, and they carried small bundles. The column was guarded on all four sides by Rumanians and policemen. The policemen were in plain clothes with armbands. The Rumanians had yellow uniforms. It was prohibited to come close to the column. If someone could no longer walk, the others helped him.
They were accommodated in a hen-house, and in day time people were allowed to bring them food. The villagers also brought straw. The Jews stayed there for a month.
The Jews were taken to the pond next to the railway line, where there were 6 or 8 tunnels (pits). The shooting began around midday; the policemen were drunk. The witnesses were hidden not far, among the trees along the railway line, and they could watch the shooting. The execution site was guarded by Ukrainian policemen, and German policemen did the shooting. The Jews were shot separately and fell down into the pit. The ones who did not fall were pushed down by the next one shot. You could hear the screams of the Jews who were waiting on the side. The Germans took a rest between the groups, and on the whole the shooting went on for 4 or 5 hours. In the end, all the bodies were burned.
The following summer, when all the snow had melted away, policemen requisitioned people to fill up the pit.
| Nadejda Yefimovna I, born 1928, said: I followed the first column up to the execution site next to the railway tunnel, in two pits. The column was accompanied by Germans on motorbikes with machine guns. The policemen had told someone that the Jews were going to be shot, and this person told everybody. My friends and I were behind an embankment not far. The Jews waited in a tunnel under the railway; the Germans took as many Jews as they could, generally 10, and made them stand around the pits. The policemen had sticks to beat and push the Jews. Six Germans made the Jews line up on the edge of the pit (tunnel), then started shooting with machine guns. There were three of them next to each pit and they shot the Jews over the two pits at the same time. The children wanted to follow their parents and jumped down into the pits by themselves. When there were no Jews left, the policemen filled up the pits. When it was all over, people (including the witness) came out of their hiding places to look at the pits. The earth was still moving, because the children who had jumped down were still alive. The following day, policemen came back to pour gasoline and burn the bodies. The fire lasted three days. |