Sergievskoye | Adyguea

/ Nina M, born in 1929: “The Jews were forced to dig a pit by themselves. There were about 10-15 victims, however I didn’t see children among them. The Jews were lined up at the edge of the pit and shot; they all fell inside the pit”©Cristian Monterroso/YIU Zinaida N., born in 1933: “Jews were taken straight from their houses, both at night and during the day, and brought to the execution site outside Sergievskoye, near the cultivated field with greenhouses.” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum Yekaterina S., born in 1935: “Jewish refugees, two women and a man called Stepanovitch, came to Sergievskoye and stayed in our house. They then fled when the Germans were approaching.” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum Vladimir S., born in 1936: “One day, I was swimming in the river with my friends and we heard the shooting. We went closer, climbed up the tree and saw a pit, about 10 meters long and 3 meters wide.” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum Lidiia B., born in 1928: “One Jewish women left to Maykop for some business just before the execution and survived, but her children were shot. She came back, stayed in Sergievskoye for a while and then left” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum A witness brings us to the mass execution site in the clearing between two ponds on the outskirts of the village. Before, it was a field with greenhouses. There is no monument, and the witness believes that the bodies are still there. ©Cristian Monterroso The Yahad team records the testimony of a local women who happened to witness the execution of the Jewish refugees. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum The execution site where about 92 Jewish refugees were murdered by the Germans on October 5, 1942. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Sergievskoye

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field with greenhouses
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1942-1943
Number of victims:
92

Witness interview

Vladimir S., born in 1936: “In summer, the Jews who lived in Sergievskoye were locked up in a pigsty. The doors were locked and windows were nailed up. I saw the faces of men looking through the holes, but I didn’t see the guards. The Jews were not given food, so my friends and I gave turnips to the detainees through the gaps in the nailed up windows. The Jews had nothing to give us in exchange. They stayed there for about a week, and then they disappeared.” (Witness n°738, interviewed in Sergievskoye on September 13, 2017)

Soviet archives

“During the occupation, I witnessed the following crimes: On October 5, 1942, a group of German soldiers arrived. Under the kommanndant’s order, all the Jews, in all 92 people, who lived in the kolkhoz “Bolshevik” were put in wagons and taken away. One of the women told me “Goodbye Dusia [diminutive of Evdokiia], we are being taken to the slaughterhouse”. They were all taken to the Klub in Sergievskoye village. After a while, a truck arrived. The men were forced in and taken somewhere to dig a pit. A little bit later, a second truck arrived to take the women and children. The same woman repeated to me “goodbye, we are being taken to the slaughterhouse”. Once the people from the second truck were shot, it returned to pick up the last ones.
All the victims were shot not far from the river, at the foot of a hill. The belongings of the 92 victims of the shooting were loaded into trucks and carts. The worthless objects remained in the victims’ houses.” [Deposition of Evdokiia Z., born in 1908, given to the State extraordinary commission (ChGK); RG 22.002M:7021-16-7]

Historical note

Sergievskoye is located 34 km north east of Maikop. According to the local villager interviewed by Yahad-In Unum, Russians, Ukrainians and Cossacks lived in the town before the war. There were no Jews. Three kolkhozes called “Bolshevik”, “Selmach” and “Mirovoi” operated in the village. At the outbreak of WWII many Jewish refugees arrived to the town. They were accommodated by the locals in their houses. Sergievskoye was occupied in early August, 1942.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The field research carried out by Yahad-In Unum has allowed us to confirm the information about 92 Jewish refugees murdered on October 5, 1942. The Jewish men were brought to the execution site by truck and were forced to dig the pit. Once the pit was dug, the remaining Jews, mostly women and children, were brought to the execution site. The Jews were lined up at the edge of the pit and shot. According to two of the witnesses prior to the execution the Jews were confined in a building (according to one of them it was a pigsty, and according to the other a former premises of the church).

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