1 Killing site(s)
Viktor Sh., born in 1927: "In October or November 1941, when Romanian and German forces occupied Odesa, they began what they called an evacuation. In reality, they were driving Jewish people out of their towns and villages. They forced them to walk all the way to our village [Ivanivka], 70 kilometers away, without any transportation. This happened repeatedly. Large groups of up to 300 people arrived at a time. We didn’t count them, of course, but there were so many of them, including elderly people and children. The little ones, the infants… their mothers were carrying them in their arms. Upon arrival, they were locked inside the former Executive Committee building, which was surrounded by a fence. To save them, our parents would let us come there so that we could pass the food on to them! We tried to help them as we could. We felt so sorry for the children. The Romanians held the captives there for a day or two before marching them away to be shot, only for another group of deportees to arrive and take their place. Frequently, after these columns departed, the bodies of the people who had died were left behind, and local residents had to collect and bury them." (Testimony n°YIU1240U, interviewed in Ivanivka, on July 23, 2011)
Buzynove is located approximately 65 km (40,3 mi) north of Odesa in the Berezivka district of the Odesa Oblast. The settlement was founded in the 1840s under the Russian Empire as part of the agricultural expansion established by the tsarist authorities. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, it developed primarily as an agricultural community. 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 sources indicate that there were no Jewish residents living in Buzynove on the eve of the Second World War.
Buzynove, like surrounding area, was occupied by German troops in early August 1941, and, on September 1, 1941, was transferred to the Romanian civilian administration as part of the Transnistria Governorate.
According to local witness Viktor Sh., born in 1927, who was interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, several columns of Jewish deportees from Odesa, each numbering several hundred people, passed through the village of Ivanivka (formely Yanivka), near Buzynove, beginning in late 1941. Escorted by Romanian guards, the deportees were held upon arrival in a temporary detention facility that functioned as a transit camp in the center of Ivanivka. The site comprised a fenced compound measuring approximately 130 by 130 meters, with the Executive Committee building at its center. Adults and children were detained inside this building under armed guard for a short time before being marched further. Viktor Sh. recalled that after each column departed, local residents were tasked with collecting the bodies of those who died in the facility to bury them in the Rotovaya balka ravine on the outskirts of Ivanivka, though he did not personally witness the burials.
After staying in Ivanivka, the columns of deportees were marched toward the Buyalyk train station. People who were too weak to keep up the pace, along with a number of able-bodied individuals, were roughly separated from the columns and shot at various locations along the road. The first killing site is located on the outskirts of Buzynove village, in a former sand quarry. According to Viktor Sh., at least two groups of victims, each numbering over 100 adults and children, were shot at this spot. However, because the firing lasted a very short time, the actual number of victims killed may have been lower, perhaps several dozen each time. The site consists of two pits, one inside the sand quarry and another located approximately 100 meters away. Immediately after the massacres, the shooters left to rejoin the advancing columns, while local residents who witnessed the events came to the site to bury the bodies.
As of today, the killing site in Buzynove remains uncommemorated.
For more information about the killing of Jews in Ivanivka please follow the corresponding profile.
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