1 Killing site(s)
Oleksandr Sh., a Jewish survivor, born in 1930: "When my brother and I were in the Uman labor camp, we were taken to prison and then transferred to the Kuzmyna Greblia labor camp. This occurred when a Ukrainian guard from Kuzmyna Greblia came to Uman to select two men for transfer. The Uman camp commander bribed him to take my brother and I instead. From the prison, we were escorted to a courtyard with trucks full of Jews, loaded onto one, and transported to Kuzmyna Greblia. Upon arrival, we were locked in a former Klub building, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, and forced to work in a stone quarry for about a year. Tragically, one day upon my return from the quarry, a girl told me that my brother had died. A month later, I was transferred to the Mykhailivka camp." (Testimony N°YIU2309U, interviewed in Chernivtsi, on September 28, 2017)
Kuzmyna Greblia, situated about 195 km (121 mi) southwest of Cherkasy, had a sparse Jewish population before the war according to witnesses interviewed by Yahad. Kuzmyna Greblia was predominantly home to Ukrainians. The local populace primarily sustained themselves through agriculture, often laboring in the collective farm. Meanwhile, the nearby town of Uman, approximately 18 km (11 mi) northeast, was home to a substantial Jewish community.
Kuzmyna Greblia came under German occupation in July 1941, transitioning to German civil administration shortly after. A German administration and Ukrainian police unit were established in the village.
Following the liquidation of the Uman ghetto in April 1942, 200 able-bodied Jews were transferred to Kuzmyna Greblia, where a labor camp was set up in the Klub building. Later, another 150 Jews who had escaped during the Uman ghetto massacre were also brought to the camp. The detainees, including men, women, and children, relied on locals for sustenance or traded valuables for food. Guarded by Germans and local police, they were forced to work in a nearby stone quarry, their labor supporting road construction in Tomashivka village, 4 kilometers away.
Throughout the camp’s existence, sick and weak Jews were regularly murdered every 2-3 days. They were taken to a clay quarry in Molotchne, 400 meters away, forced to dig a pit, and then shot. Despite the absence of a memorial at the execution site, a memorial in Kuzmyna Greblia honors over 70 Jews from various ghettos who were killed there.
The labor camp operated for about a year before the remaining detainees were transferred to other locations, notably Bershad and Mykhailivka.
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