Cherevani (Hlobyne, Globyne, Globin) | Poltava

/ The view from the village of Cherevani in Hlobyne © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum Anastasia Ch., born in 1928: "The rumors were circulating that the Jews were going to be shot. One day, my aunt came and told me, ’Look, the people are lined up on the embankment.’ Then, the gunshots, and everyone fell."© Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum Petro Ch., born in 1934: “When we heard the first shots, out of curiosity, we decided to go see. The road was blocked by a truck with guards, so we hid ourselves in the bushes."© Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum Oleksander Ch., born in 1934: “There was also a camp of prisoners of war here. After one week of imprisonment, they were taken and shot, not far from the place where the Jews had been shot before.” © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum Galina, born in 1932 in Globyne. "My aunt, Marina, was married to a Jew. The day of the shooting, the Germans’ auxiliaries came to look for her two children, they were half-Jewish. She wanted to die with them." © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum With Petro, the Yahad-In Unum team followed the same final path taken by the Jews before they were shot. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum The execution site of about 86 Globyne Jews. After the war, the corpses were reburied in the Orthodox cemetery © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum The monument in memory of the Jews, communists and prisoners of war murdered by the Nazis during 1941-1943 © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum

Execution of the Globyne Jews in Cherevani

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Pit dug on a vacant lot
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1943
Number of victims:
About 86

Witness interview

Anastasia Ch., born in 1928, recalls: "The rumors were circulating that the Jews were going to be shot. One day, my aunt came and told me, ’Look, the people are lined up on the embankment.’ When I looked through the window of my house, I saw about fifteen people lined up at the edge. We didn’t see many details because it was about 2km away. Then, the gunshots, and everyone fell. We didn’t see the shooters, but they must have been at the edge of the embankment. Once this group was shot, they brought another one. But I went away because I didn’t want to watch.” (Eyewitness n°1914 , interviewed in Cherevani, on October 14, 2015)

Soviet archives

“On April 29, 1942, the Gestapo unit arrived in Globyne […] In the course of nine days, the Ukrainian and Russian population was exterminated. Given the lists of Jews, members of the komsol party and activists, which were provided by the chief of the district, the Gestapo soldiers rounded up women, elderly people and children. They placed them in covered trucks and confined them in a place where they were subjected to torture, interrogations and other kinds of violence. After that, they were shot. One of the execution sites was located behind the embankment of the railroads, about 1,5km east of Stepanenko, at the corner of the road leading from Globyne to the railway station of Pyroguy. The mass grave measured 3,5km deep, 4m large and 9m in length. During the exhumation, 86 bodies were found, including 51 men, 14 women, 9 boys and 7 girls aged from 1 to 12 years old, and 5 elderly people.” [Act of the Soviet Extraordinary Commission, RG 22.002M, Fond 721, Opis 70, Delo 948]

Historical note

Cherevani is a village located 4km away from Hlobyne. Apparently, there were no Jews living in Cherevani. All of the Jews lived in nearby town of Hlobyne which is located 123km west of Poltava. On the eve of the war, 10% of the whole population was Jewish. The majority of Jews were involved in trade or worked as artisans. The village was occupied by Germans in the middle of September 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Shortly after the Germans’ arrival, all the Jews from the district were registered. Those lists were used after by the Gestapo to exterminate the Jews. There was no ghetto in Hlobyne; all of the Jews continued living in their houses till April 14942.

In April-May 1942 an SD unit shot 86 Jews and Communists to death outside of Hlobyne, close to the railroad. Before being killed, the victims were tortured. According to Yahad’s witnesses the Jews were shot with communists and activists, in groups of twenty. There were two shooters who fired with machine guns from both sides.  

In Hlobyne there was a camp of prisoners of war, located on the territory of the sugar factory. It was fenced in with barbed wire. Those who managed to survive despite inhuman living conditions and hunger were shot afterwards at the same place as the Jews.

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