Trip Report on research trip #23 in Ukraine

Dnipropetrovsk Region

December 2, 2010 – December 16, 2010

Team : Alexey KOSAREVSKYI – Team leader Aleksandr KONONOV – Interpreter Marina DUTERSTE – Interpreter Kateryna DOUZENKO – Interpreter Mikhaïl STROUTINSKI – Ballistics expert Vera SIDA – Investigator /Interviewer Oscar BLANCO – Cameraman Miguel MALDONADO – photographer Manuel VALLS-VICENTE –

Trip report Sites investigated : Mykolaïvka, Petrivka, Nazarivka, Malaya Kalynivka, Nezaboudine Oleksandropil, Ossypenko, Vladimirovka, Lubymivka, Gorodichsche, Maksimovka, Ostriv, Marievka, Vyvodovo, Stryukivka, Novopavlovka, Nikopol, Cholokhove Khmelnitske Novoivanivka, Vyssoke Shyroke, Avdotievka, Stepove Novoioulievka, Vychneve Novokhortitsa, Novossiolka.

After 14 days of research in the Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, the team of Yahad – In Unum had investigated 28 villages north of the town of Nikopol as well as around the town of Kryvy Rig. The goal of this third trip was to complete research on the Jewish communities and kolkhozes conducted during two preceding trips in this part of the region. We successfully identified a dozen Jewish communities as well as discovered numerous work camps situated along Durchgangsstrasse IV between Kryvy Rig and Dnipropetrovsk.   The work camps and the Jewish kolkhozes One of the notable results of this third research trip in the Dnipropetrovsk region is the possibility of seeing almost all of the events that occurred during the German occupation. The recurrence of massive displacements of the Jewish population over long distances, to be interned in work camps, or shot, and the disappearance of 90% of the Jewish communities, has required several investigations in this region in order to completely piece together the crime scenes. As of 1942, the fate of the Jews living in the communities is closely linked to the creation of work camps for Durchgangstrasse IV. With the arrival of the Germans, the Jews were forced to continue working in the kolkhozes for one year when all the of adults able to work were forced to work on the construction of the road. Maria D (born in 1916) shared her memories of the camp of Vychnevé: “The Jews were placed in the shed of the kolkhoze. Every day they went to work carrying stones for the construction of this road here. The sanitary conditions were atrocious in the camp and Jews died each day. The weakest who couldn’t work were regularly shot in the silos of the kolkhoze.”  At the same time, the elderly and the children remained in the settlements to be shot at a later time. (pic – Former silo of the kolkhoze at Vychnevé where the Jews working in the construction of Durchgangstrasse IV were shot.) It is important to make special note of the camps where the Jews were hardly guarded, not imprisoned and could circulate freely in the village, a situation described as “Freilager.” For example, this is the case of the work camp in the village, Avdotievka. Aleksandra K. (born in 1921) told us: “In any case, the Jews had nowhere to run. The Germans were everywhere!” She remembers as many as 200 Jews were brought to the village and put in the building with the forge of the kolkhoze. Following the investigation, the Yahad – In Unum team was able to establish that that these Jewish adults, able to work, were brought to the ex-Jewish communities of Kamenka and Izloutchisté, located some dozen kilometers away. Two months after the arrival of the Jews in this camp, they were told that their children were executed by the Germans. Maria R. (born in 1926) remembers: “Crying and screaming rose in the village when they were told of the killing of their children!” Having traced the link from the first investigative trip in the region, we could corroborate the mass executions of Jewish and half-Jewish children at this time, these Kinderaktionen, and the announcement made to the Jews in the work camp. Following the investigation conducted by Yahad – In Unum, it has been discovered that the establishment of kolkhozes were largely used by the Nazis in this part of the region to exterminate the Jewish population, notably the silos storing grain. They were emptied of their contents to be subsequently filled with the bodies of the Jews that had been shot. In contrast, upon the arrival of the Soviets, in 1944, the kolkhozes were returned to their original function.   So that nothing was wasted, the silos, which kept the Jews that had been shot, were often reused. To do so, the villagers themselves had to remove the bodies, dig a new pit a hundred meters from the execution site and re-bury them. This is the case of the camp at Lioubimovka. Maria G. (born in 1926) gave an exceptional testimony to the Yahad – In Unum team: “We lifted the bodies to the surface, and then we had to place them on a cart and transport them to the new pit. Each day a new group worked to complete this task. In each group there were 5 people and each person had to remove 10 bodies per day. We worked for 2 weeks.” Freileben and Morgenrot Today the village of Ossypenko no longer has any trace of life before the war and yet at that time, it was composed of two communities: that of the Jews called Freileben and that of the Germans, called Morgenrot. There are no longer any Jews, nor Volksdeutsche, but the memory of the local population persists. Through its investigation, the Yahad – In Unum team found evidence which remains of the two communities. The Jewish community comprised around 15 families and the German one around 50 families, in addition to around 5 Ukrainian families who lived in the Jewish community. The two communities  were within 100 meters of each other. The Jews’ way of life was that of a commune. Leonid D (born in 1927) explained: “Here there was a council that gathered in order to manage the daily life of the community, there was a community center, a windmill, an apiary, a power station built to supply the water tower.” The ruins of the water tower still remain which irrigated the fields of crops on Jewish farms belonging to the commune. All that was produced in the commune was equally redistributed among the Jewish population. The surplus was transported to the next village and sold there. The children’s school was located in the German community of Morgenrot. The stone building still exists. In contrast with the Jewish commune, the German nationals had a kolkhoze and a “MTC” (a mechanic station), which also served the Jewish farms. At the beginning of the war, all of the Jews except two families of skilled workers were brought to the edge of the community and shot in a ditch. Presently, this is a field of sunflowers without a memorial.  The skilled workforce, a carpenter and a blacksmith, were used for almost a year before being shot with their families in two different spots. (pic – Leonid, born in 1927, recounts the story of the two communities) From the testimonies of the local population, Yahad – In Unum has been able to identify the Jewish communities of Freileben, Krassindorf, Rotfeld, etc., the work camps of Lioubimovka, Vychnevé, Avdotievka, etc., as well as numerous execution sites not mentioned in the archives. By the end of this research trip, the team had identified 10 mass grave sites of which almost 60% are without memorials, therefore totally unknown, and interviewed 43 witnesses.