2 Killing site(s)
Tamara P., born in 1930: "Two Jewish women used to come to our house often: Zhenya, an older woman, and Lida, her granddaughter or niece, who was about my age. They came to wash themselves and their laundry.
When the guards began leading the Jews to the execution site, they were arranged in a column, five people across. Zhenya and Lida were in the third row. I was standing near the column and called out to my friend Lida. At that moment, Zhenya pushed her strongly out of the line toward me. I grabbed her, and we hurried toward a haystack, pretending to gather hay for fuel. My mother and aunt were standing nearby and saw everything.
Suddenly, a German soldier approached and forced both of us back into the column. We were taken along with the others toward the cliffs to be shot.
As the column passed the lime pits at the bottom of the hill, the ones who could no longer walk were pulled aside and shot there. The rest were driven further uphill. At the edge of the cliff, people were lined up and shot one by one. When only four people remained ahead of me, a local policeman, acting at my father’s request, told the German guards that I was not Jewish. They allowed me to step aside. I did not walk home… I ran.
The next day, I returned to the site with others. I saw a family I knew pulling gold teeth from the mouths of the victims. Later, the bodies were poured over with a liquid and burned." (Testimony N°YIU1277U, interviewed in Sakharove, on August 4, 2011)
"In March 1942, around March 18, Soviet civilians displaced from Western Ukraine and the city of Odesa were executed. The perpetrators were German colonists originally from Tartakai, acting under the command of a German officer. The executions began in the evening and continued until the early morning.
The shootings took place on the edges of the Kammeny Ravine (“Stone Ravine”), located northeast of the village of Sakharovka, approximately 450–500 meters from the kolkhoz poultry farm. Prior to the execution, the victims were forced to strip to their underwear. They were then shot in groups of approximately 100–150 people.
In total, nearly 400 individuals were killed, including about 190 children. The victims were executed by shots fired to the back of the neck with a machine gun.
Following the executions, the bodies, including those of victims who were still wounded, were covered with straw, doused with flammable liquid, and burned." [Act N°16 drawn by State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK), on October 10, 1944, in the village of Sakharovka, Berezovka district, Odesa region; Copy USHMM RG.22-002M, Reel 6 (29), p.36]
Sakharove, located in the Berezivka district of Odesa Oblast, lies approximately 88 km (54.6 mi) northeast of Odesa. In the nineteenth century, the area formed part of the Kherson Governorate of the Russian Empire and was included in the zone of Jewish agricultural colonization established by the tsarist authorities. The Berezivka district was also characterized by a significant presence of ethnic German settlers (Volksdeutsche).
Following the Revolution, the region became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Although several Jewish agricultural colonies existed in the wider Berezivka area, available census data indicate that Sakharove itself did not have a Jewish population prior to the Second World War.
Sakharove was occupied by German forces in July or August 1941 and was subsequently transferred to Romanian civilian administration as part of the Transnistria Governorate. Although Romanian authorities were not permanently stationed in the village, a local auxiliary police force was established to maintain order and enforce occupation policies.
In February 1942, approximately 400 Jews, including women, children, and elderly persons, were brought to Sakharove. They had been deported from Odesa and, according to archival sources, also from Western Ukraine. Upon arrival, the deportees were confined in a stable.
Tamara P., born in 1930 and interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, recalled that the deportees arrived at night. Her father, who served as a foreman, was assigned to guard them. She recounted that when he returned home, he asked her mother to heat water because the detainees’ children were crying from hunger and exhaustion. Despite the family’s own limited resources, Tamara and her siblings brought water and small amounts of food to the detainees during the night.
After approximately one week, the Jews were redistributed among several locations in the village, including private homes, an empty store, and the local community club. During this period, some detainees approached villagers to ask for food or to exchange personal belongings for provisions.
On March 18, 1942, the Jews were murdered during an Aktion carried out by German colonists (Volksdeutsche) from Tartakai under the supervision of a German officer, with the assistance of local policemen.
The victims were assembled into a column and marched toward a stone cliff on the outskirts of Sakharove. According to Tamara P., between 10 and 20 individuals were killed in a lime pit at the base of the hill. These victims included those too weak to continue the march, primarily elderly persons, as well as individuals who attempted to escape. According to the witness, there were two lime pits used prior to reaching the main killing site: one at the foot of the hill, identified by Yahad-In Unum, and another near the stables.
The remaining victims were escorted to the cliff overlooking a ravine. There, they were forced to strip to their underwear and shot in groups. Archival sources indicate that nearly 400 Jews, including approximately 190 children, were shot during the Aktion. The victims’ bodies fell into the ravine and initially remained uncovered.
The following day, at least two local policemen reportedly removed gold teeth from the victims. Their belongings were loaded onto carts and taken away. Subsequently, the bodies were doused with flammable liquid and burned in an attempt to conceal the crime.
According to Tamara P., at least three individuals survived the shooting: a Russian woman named Marusia and her two sons. The children’s father, who was Jewish, had escaped prior to the Aktion. After surviving the execution, the woman and her sons were sheltered by a local resident until the arrival of the Red Army.
Today, no memorial marks the site of the killings in Sakharove. The location remains unmarked, and the victims have no formal place of commemoration.
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