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1 Execution site(s)
Boris K., born in 1929, recounted: “Once the Germans arrived, they installed their administration. A local police force was created. It numbered about 20 policemen. There were local people and also Volksdeutschers, who were enrolled in the police. The Germans set up a Kommandantur and named a Kommandant. It was the district chief. He wore a brown uniform. He used to walk on the streets with his dog and beat people if he didn’t like something. Once the Jews were taken, local policemen took down the Jewish houses in order to build their own. After the war, the policemen were judged and sentenced to death or deportation as was the Kommandant.”
(Witness N°1720, interviewed in Krasnopil, On June 6, 2013).
Krasnopil is situated 70km southwest of Zhytomyr. According to the witness, before the war there were about fifty Jewish families living in the village. There was a synagogue. The majority of local Jews were involved in commerce and handcrafts. The village was occupied by Germans in early July 1941.
There is little information about the Holocaust in Krasnopil in the archives. According to the archives and field research, no ghetto was created. Yet, the witness interviewed by Yahad mentioned that all the Jews were forced to wear distinguishing signs. The local witnesses didn’t confirm the execution of 37 Jews mentioned in the archives. Apparently, all the Jews were taken to the camp in Berdychiv. However, we were able to identify the execution site of two Jewish men, who remained in hiding for a while and were later denounced by locals. They were shot separately, in pits they had dug themselves, by a German who arrived from another town.
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Read Yahad-In Unum’s report of the research trip in this area