1 Killing site(s)
Anna R., born in 1927: "The Germans brought a group of Jews to our village and locked them up in the brick building. Around 100 prisoners, too weak to work, remained in the building, while another group of around 100 people were taken each morning in columns to the quarry near the village of Terlytsia, where they were subjected to forced labor. The workers were poorly clothed and barefoot. For a while, before our cow was taken away by the Germans, my sister and I would bring them bottles of milk. Sometimes, policemen would take the Jews to a nearby pond so they could wash. Once, I managed to talk to a Jewish girl, but she didn’t say much - she was crying all the time." (Testimony N°YIU1214U, interviewed in Naraivka, on May 26, 2011)
Naraivka is situated approximately 110 km (68 mi) southeast of Vinnytsia. The village first appeared in written records in the 18th century. According to accounts of local witnesses, there were no Jewish residents in Naraivka on the eve of the war. However, an important Jewish community resided in the nearby town of Terlytsia, located about 4 km (2.5 mi) to the north.
Naraivka fell under German occupation in late July 1941. Shortly afterwards, a German administration was established, which included the formation of a local police force. A German Kommandant, responsible for overseeing the village, was stationed in the school building.
In the summer, likely in 1942, 200 Jews from the Romanian-occupied Transnistria region, including men, women, children, and the elderly, were brought to the village and confined for about two days within the school building before being transferred to the kolkhoz workshop. This marked the creation of a Jewish labor camp, guarded by local policemen. Approximately 100 Jewish detainees were forced into labor, contributing to the construction of a road by working in the quarry near Terlytsia village. As for the weaker Jews, they were allowed to remain in the camp and could move around the village freely.
Presumably in the early winter of 1943, following the outbreak of a typhus epidemic, the camp was liquidated. Before their execution, the victims were forced to dig their own pit, located in a field approximately 200 meters from the kolkhoz. While some of the labor camp detainees were taken to the execution site to be murdered, the remainder were transferred elsewhere, either before or after the Aktion. To this day, the site remains unmarked by any memorial.
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