Kuzhorskaya | Adyguea

/ Local ambiance© Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum Piotr G., born in 1927: “Two local women saved a Jewish boy and a Jewish girl by hiding them under their wide skirts.” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum Anna G, born in 1925: “Some refugees stayed in our village, they lived with the locals.” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum Yahad team during an interview with a witness. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum The monument to 36 Jewish refugees executed at this site. It is located on the edge of a cultivated field outside Kuzhorskaya, by the road. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum The place of reburial located in the central park of the town. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Kuzhorskaya

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1942-1943
Number of victims:
36

Witness interview

Piotr G., born in 1927, says: “When the Jews were marched to be shot, two local women saved a Jewish boy and a Jewish girl; the women hid the children under their wide skirts. The boy grew up and came to visit his rescuer after the war. I also remember that one man from the column threw a bag with money into the courtyard of one old woman. The latter brought the money to selsoviet after the Germans left.” (Witness n°730, interviewed in Kuzhorskaya on September 11, 2017)

Soviet archives

“At the end of August, 1942, 36 people from the Jewish evacuees’ families were caught by German soldiers. The soldiers brought them to the Pervomaisky Kurgan, not far from the Kuzhorskaya stanitsa, where they were shot. Among the victims there were 10 women, 14 men and 12 little children, including Dima Moiseyevna Plotnikova and her 3 children, Yakushenko and her child” [Act drawn up by the State extraordinary commission (ChGk), in November 1943; RG 22.002M. 7021-16-4]

Historical note

Kuzhorskaya is located on the banks of the Zeral and Kuzhor rivers, 17 km east of Maikop. Stanitsa was founded in 1861. At the end of the 19th century it had 4,188 inhabitants; back then there was a church, a school, 19 shops and industrial establishments, and 13 factories. The Jewish population wasn’t significant; however it increased with the arrival of numerous refugees that settled in the village. Kuzhorskaya was occupied by the German troops on August 9, 1942.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The execution of Jews started right after the occupation. At the end of August of 1942 36 refugees of Jewish nationality were driven in a column to an execution site located on the mound near the village, called tPervomaisky Kurgan. On their way they had to leave their belongings in the Kommandantur. After the victims were shot and buried in the pit dug on the mound.

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