1 Killing site(s)
Tamara P., born in 1930: “I heard from the adults that a Jewish woman had an affair with a Romanian gendarme. They lived together for a while. The gendarme’s name was Lokotenente or something like that. So, one day when they were crossing the river, their boat overturned and the gendarme almost drowned. The Jewish woman who was with him at that moment didn’t call out for help. He survived, but the gendarmes decided to punish the woman. First, they attached a metallic plate on her back and forced her to walk through the village. While she was walking the gendarmes would hit the plate with metal batons. After that humiliation, she was locked in the garage before being transferred to Germans-occupied territory where eventually she was killed.” (Witness n°2784U, interviewed in Mankivka, on September 14, 2020)
“[…] In November 1941, the German and Romanian criminals brought 640 Jews, including 340 men, 235 women and 65 children to Mankovka. They were residents of Bessarabia brought here by force. In Makovka the Romanian criminals created very harsh and inhumane living conditions for them. In winter, they were placed in uninhabitable buildings, such as pigsties, henhouses, or basements, without windows, doors or heating. They were not given any food and they were forbidden to contact the local population who tried to give them food. As a result, 556 people out of a total of 640 died, including 321 men, 186 women and 49 children.” [Act drawn up by Soviet Extraordinary Commission (ChGK) on April 13, 1945; GARF 7021-54-1242]
“It was the Romanian gendarme [illegible], whose first or last name I do not know, who was the most ferocious with us. He hit a woman who did not want to become his mistress. Then, he sent her to another side of the Buh where the German Kommandantur was, where she was shot for being Jewish. On the same day, he ordered his soldiers and gendarmes to take all the Jews to the Bug river to drown us. When we were taken to the riverbank, we were ordered to go into the water, but no-one did. Then, the soldiers and the gendarmes started to beat us with rifle butts until we started bleeding and weren’t able to get up. This happened in 1942, but I don’t remember the month. […]” [Deposition of Anna F., a Jewish survivor, born in 1910 in Romania, given to the Soviet Extraordinary Commission (ChGK) on April 13, 1945; GARF 7021-54-1242]
Mankivka is located on the bank of the Buh River 83km (52mi) southeast of Vinnytsia. We must not confuse this village with the one located in the Cherkassy region, where the Jewish population was rather big. Little information is known about the prewar Jewish community in Mankivka. According to a witness interviewed by Yahad, two Jewish families lived in Mankivka, next to the bridge. One family were merchants. Their daughter, Raissa, worked at the school. Another family produced lemonade. The community did not have a synagogue or cemetery. The two Jewish families managed to evacuate before the Germans’ arrival.
Mankivka was occupied by German and Romanian forces at the end of July 1941. The village remained under the Romanians and became part of Transnistria in September 1941. The border with the German occupied territories passed through the Buh River. In November 1941, about 640 Jews were deported to Mankivka from Bessarabia. They were confined in a pigsty that belonged to a local kolkhoz [collective farm]. The Jewish refugees were subjected to systematic theft by the local police, and different kinds of humiliation from the Romanian gendarmes. As a result of the inhumane living conditions, disease, and lack of food, 556 Jews died. Their corpses were buried in the animal remains pit located nearby. Today, there is a monument near the site.
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