.jpg&f=jpg)
.jpg&f=jpg)
.jpg&f=jpg)
1 Killing site(s)
Mariia R., born in 1931, says: “[…] The girls were shot on the spot. But their brother and Yankel kept running. Seeing that his two sisters were killed, the young man stopped and was also killed. Near this place was a small pit in which the bodies were buried. The body of Yankel was above the other bodies. I will tell you the rest of this story as Yankel told me about it. At night, opening his eyes, he saw the starry sky. He was afraid; he did not understand where he was. When he regained consciousness, he went out of the pit and went to Chotyryiske, to a man who housed him. It must be noted that all this took place in 1943, during all this time the Jews had managed to hide in the stables. Not far from here, in Kashperivka, lived a rich man. He was a good man. But there were also bad people. They denounced this man by saying that he was hiding the Jews. Following this complaint, a policeman came to see him. He tried to persuade him to denounce the Jews, saying that he would kill the man’s entire family if he found Jews at his house. But the man calmly answered him "Go ahead, look." Meanwhile Yankel was hiding in the stove and listening to their conversation. The owner of the house was very calm and gave the policeman a nice meal and he left without looking. When nightfall came, this man took his cart and brought Yankel into the Novohrad-Volynskyi forest.” (Testimony n°1649, interviewed in Serednya in April 29th, 2013)
“In August 1941, 10 inhabitants of the village of Yuzefivka were shot.” [Rapport, B162-7320]
Yosypivka is located in the district of Baranivka 65km east of Zhytomyr. In 1906, it was called Yusefivka. Back then, there were 87 farms in the village and the population amounted to 619 persons. The local Jews lived off small trade and handcraft. The village was occupied in July, 1941.
According to the witness interviewed by Yahad in the village of Serednya, located 4 km from Yosypivka, the day after the arrival of the Germans, all Jewish men had to gather in the Klub and forced to do manual labor. About 15 men were driven in covered trucks to the forest and shot. Three weeks later, Jewish women, the elderly and children, including half-Jewish children, were gathered in a Jewish house next to the Klub. There they had to dance while being beaten and humiliated, all the local villagers were forced to watch. The Jews remained for some time locked in the house before being brought to the shooting. They were guarded by the Germans and police. There were about fifty people in the column. The pit was located 1km from the village of Yosypivka. The Jews had to stand around the pit. They were shot from two sides, all at once. There is no memorial at that place. However, Yahad investigators found the memorial to the Jews of Baranivka killed in the winter of 1943 in the forest 1km from Yosypivka.
For more information about the fate of the Baranivka Jews please refer to the corresponding profile.
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
Read Yahad-In Unum’s report of the research trip in this area