Yahad investigation: April 2009

Execution sites identified: 1

Witness interview

Viktor K. (N°139) “[…] The Germans told me, “watch how the Jews are being killed so you will no longer have any idea about joining the partisans”…and I saw the execution of about 30 wagon loads…

Yes, 52,000 people were killed there – the Jews and all those who were put in the Bronnaïa Gora shed (the ones who were suspected of having been in touch with the partisans). They were forced to dig the mass graves and then they were all killed (including the Jews)[…]“

Soviet archives

RG 22.002M / 7021-83 / 9 : “The rail cars with the people were unloaded one after another. The people were forced to undress completely and to put their clothes in a pile. Then, they were marched along a passageway of barbed wire into the pits where they were ordered to lie face down.”

German archives

B162-1328 (p.1515) : “The Sonderkommando opened many mass graves in Bronnaya-Gora and burned the corpses”.
B162-7841 (p.4016-4020) : “According to my memories, there were about three mass graves. One of the graves was near my side of the railroad which was leading through the forest, and two were on the other side (…). The Jews had to descend an inclined plane and then lay down on ther stomachs inside the pit, their faces turned toward the ground. They, they were all killed by a bullet in the neck, fired by a member of the SD”.