Spasskoye | Stavropol

/ The Orthodox church with a monument to the soldiers who perished during WWII © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum Former building of the Kommandantur. Before the war, it was a local administration building. © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum Pyotr R., born in 1928, remembers seeing about 15-20 Jewish bodies in the dairy yard. The Jews were shot during the night. © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum The former yard of Brigade n°2, where the Jewish spent the night along with the prisoners of war before being executed. © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum Pyotr R. pointing out the location of the well where the bodies of Jewish victims were thrown after being killed in the dairy yard.© Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum After being shot in the dairy yard, the Jewish bodies were thrown in the well. With the help of local witnesses, Yahad was able to find the ruins of the dairy building in the field © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum A member of the Yahad team taking the GPS coordinates of the execution site of Jewish refugees. They were shot in the animal landfill pit. © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum Yahad team during the interview © Cristian Monterosso - Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jewish refugees in Spasskoye

2 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Animal landfill pit/Well
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1942-1943

Witness interview

Pyotr R., born in 1928, remembers: «Once the war broke out a lot of Jewish refugees arrived in our village. Under the order of the selsoviet, the local villagers took them in. A Jewish family from Moldova was placed in our house. They were named Danil and Sarah and they had three daughters. The eldest daughter was very beautiful and all the boys tried to flirt with her. Another daughter, Simka, was my age, about 13-14 years old. We were friends with her. Once they moved, they had a boy. Danil worked in the kolkhoze. He transported food supplies. Sarah didn’t work because she had a newborn. All the Jews fit to work worked on farming activities in the kolkhoz. All the Jews were fed by the kolkhoz.» (Witness n°551, interviewed in Spasskoye, on August 23, 2015)

Soviet archives

«Germans soldiers and officers arrested 44 refugees, men, women and children of all ages among them, passing through the village of Spasskoye, where they were shot. Their names remained unknown. On another day, they shot 5 local villagers from Spasskoye; members of the Avangrd kolkhoz.” [Act n°64 of Soviet Extraordinary Commission, drawn up on June 28, 1943; RG-22.002M, 7021-17/10 (district B-M)]

Historical note

Spasskoye is located on the banks of the Mokraya Buyvola River, around 150km east of Stavropol. Historically home to Russians, there were no Jewish families living in the village prior to the war. According to the witness, once the war broke out, about a dozen Jewish families settled in the village. Under the order of the local administration, the Jews lived among the villagers and worked in the kolkhoz. The Germans occupied the territory in August 1942. The majority of Jewish refugees were able to evacuate before their arrival.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

According to Yahad’s field research, about 7 Jews who didn’t have time to evacuate were executed by Germans in the animal landfill pit. About 44 Jews, according to the Soviet archives, and about 17 Jews, according to local witnesses, were brought from another location and shot in Spasskoye. The Jews were brought in carts. In all, there were between 5-7 carts. Before being shot, the Jews were interned in the yard of the machine service, Brigade 2, for a night. They were shot during the night in the yard of a dairy farm and their bodies were thrown in the well.

Nearby villages

To support the work of Yahad-in Unum please consider making a donation

Do you have additional information regarding a village that you would like to share with Yahad ?

Please contact us at contact@yahadinunum.org
or by calling Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17