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1 Killing site(s)
Volodymyr S., born in 1930, recalls: "I saw my friend Sioma Borakh at the stadium, which was full of people. There were not only Jews but also civilians and soldiers. However, the Jews made up the majority. At first, Sioma wasn’t there; he was still in town. He had Slavic features, so he wasn’t rounded up at the stadium with the other Jews. If he hadn’t gone there, he would have survived. I didn’t see this myself, but local boys told me that he saw his mother in the crowd and shouted, “Mother!” She shouted back for him to stay where he was, but he wanted to be with her. He was noticed and brought into the crowd with the others. He was born in 1928, and this happened in 1941, so he was just thirteen years old." (Testimony N°YIU2221U, interviewed in Kakhovka, on May 26th, 2017)
"From the beginning of the occupation, a local administration was established. A Kommandantur, headed by Commander Huster and his deputy, Dangel, was in operation.
My son was a policeman and told me about the horrific killings of the Jewish population. On September 16, 1941, the entire Jewish population of the town was ordered to gather in front of the Kommandantur. They were then taken in groups outside the town toward the "Chervonnaya Kultura” kolkhoz.
Men, women, children, and the elderly were forced to march on foot. Once outside the town, they were thrown alive into a well in a field. Then, grenades were thrown in. According to my son, 1,700 Jews were killed that day.
Some Jews were shot in an anti-tank ditch and around 100 were shot in a trench in the power station yard. The German administration regularly carried out raids to capture Jews in hiding." [Interrogation report of witness Issidor P., written on November 6, 1943. GARF 7021-77-414/pp. 83–84/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
"Around September 10, Ruf, the head of the gendarmerie, ordered all Jews to come to the gendarmerie for registration. Nearly 600 Jews went that day, including elderly people, women with children, and infants. They were all divided into three groups. The first group was taken to the Dimitrov orchard, about 7 km from Kakhovka; the second group was taken to an anti-tank ditch about 500 meters from the city; and the third group was taken to the Slobodka district, located northwest of the town. They were all shot that day." [Interrogation Report of Witness Semion K., born in 1898. Written on November 5, 1943. GARF 7021-77-414/pp. 40-41 /Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
"The commando killed at least 500 Jewish men, women, and children from Kakhovka outside the town in September 1941. Defendant Spiekermann participated in the shooting carrying out the order of the commando’s chief.
In September, 1941 a Teilkommando killed 150 Jews in the Kakhovka area: men, women and children. The shooting took place at the edge of a well in the steppe. Defendant Bock directed the execution and personally opened fire." [Report from the Preliminary Investigation into the Sonderkommando 10a Trial. B162-1198, p. 9.]
Malokakhovka is located on the bank of the Dnipro River, approximately 80 km (49 mi) northeast of Kherson. The earliest records of the village date back to 1855. According to a witness interviewed by Yahad, the Jewish population in Malokakhovka itself was quite small. The largest Jewish community in the area was located a few kilometers away, in Kakhovka, where, in 1939, 1,072 Jews lived — making up approximately 9% of the town’s total population.
Malokakhovka was occupied by Wehrmacht forces on September 1, 1941. During the occupation, it became a site of the mass murder of Jewish residents from Kakhovka and the surrounding areas.
While it is documented that the main Aktion targeting the Jews was carried out in September 1941 by members of Sonderkommando 10a—a unit of Einsatzgruppe D—with the support of German forces and the local auxiliary police, archival sources differ regarding the exact date, location, and number of victims. This discrepancy may suggest that the Aktion was carried out across multiple locations, that the same location was referred to under different names, or that several mass killings occurred at the same site on different dates.
One of the most probable dates cited in the archives is September 16, 1941. However, Soviet sources indicate a broader range—from September 10 to 25—while German documents refer more generally to events that took place in September.
According to witnesses interviewed by Yahad, the Jewish population of Kakhovka—including women, children, and the elderly—was rounded up at the local stadium. However, archival records identify the gathering place as either the courtyard of the police station or the Kommandantur.
After being rounded up, the Jews were deceived and told they were being relocated to another area. They were divided into groups and taken approximately 7 km away, to the Dimitrov kolkhoz (collective farm) in the Malokakhovka settlement. In different sources, however, the location is referred to under various names, including the kolkhozes Chervonnaya Kultura and Reutova, or the hamlets of Malkovo and Terny.
Upon arrival, some victims were ordered to undress. Many were shot at the edge of a well—approximately 40 meters deep—while others were forced to jump into it alive. Hand grenades were then thrown into the well to ensure no survivors remained.
Valentyna L., born in 1936 and interviewed by Yahad, recalled: “The Jews were taken to the hamlet named Terny, where they were shot into a damaged well. The next day, I went to the field next to the execution site to harvest carrots. Around the well, there was a lot of blood and the Jews’ belongings. I saw a crutch. The well was very deep. There is a monument there today.”
Estimates of the number of victims killed at the Dimitrov Collective Farm vary widely. Archival sources place the number between 650 and 1,700 Jews, while the memorial now standing at the site is dedicated to more than 2,000 victims from the Kakhovka district.
For more information about the killing of Jews in Kakhovka, please refer to the corresponding profile.
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