1 Execution site(s)
Hanna S., born in 1929: "It was in summer. That day I was grazing my cow, next to the railroads. My mother was working in the field not far from me. So, I was grazing the cow and suddenly I saw a big column of people being led away. There were men, women and children in the column. They had some belongings with them and were being marched from Yaltushkiv. The column was escorted by Germans with dogs. They were marched towards the pit that had been dug in advance to be shot. Before being shot they had to undress and then, in groups of tens, they approached the pit and were shot with automatic weapon. I was at about 100m away from the execution site, but once they started the shooting I got scared and ran away." (Witness n°2575U, interviewed in Myhaitsi April 09, 2019)
"During the occupation of the town of Yaltushkov, Bar district, Germano-fascist troops shot 1,644 innocent Soviet citizens, among whom 450 people shot in August 1942; 1,194 people on October 15, 1942. The shootings were conducted 2 km north of the village. All bodies were buried in two mass graves at the execution site." [Act n°10 drawn up by Soviet State Extraordinary Commission, on April 14, 1945; GARF 7021-54-1273, p.104].
"The shooting lasted until 2 p.m. - that is, a total of 6 hours [shooting in Bar]. At about 4 p.m. the same day, we drove to the village of Yaltushkov, where, under the direction of me, E. Maks Sch., and Police Commander A., the 500 Jews who were in the Yaltushkov ghetto were shot. The shooting was carried out by the same SD commando about 2.5 km northwest of the village, in the sand pits dug by the workers of the sugar factory before the shooting. The Aktion was carried out in the same way as in Bar. Among the victims were men, women and children of all ages. My participation in the shooting in this case was to take the Jews from the ghetto to the execution site. In the first and second cases, the pits were filled in with earth [...] I also participated with the other participants in the execution; later [the bodies] were buried deeper. The victims’ clothes were transported to a shed in Bar, and in Yaltushkov the clothes were stored in a building. Some clothes were sold to the local population, the rest were abandoned in the sheds." [Deposition of Richard Sch., border chief police chief; BArch162-7856]
Yaltushkiv is located 89 km (55mi) west southwest of Vinnytsia. The first record of the Jewish community dates back to the 18th century. In 1897, 1,238 Jews lived in Yaltushkiv making up 35% of the total population. The majority of Jews lived of small-scale trade or handicraft. The community suffered greatly from the attacks of different units during the Civil War (1919-1921). Under the Soviet regime, private businesses were closed, and most Jews were employed as office workers or at small factories, like local sugar and textile factories, or industrial cooperatives. Many Jews started to work in the agriculture as the collective farms were created. In the 1930s, a Jewish kolkhoz was even created. On the eve of the war in 1939, 20% of the population was Jewish. Only 1,212 Jews remained in Yaltushkiv.
Yaltushkiv was occupied by German forces on July 15, 1941. The territory was under German occupation. The anti-Jewish measures were adopted shortly after the occupation. Every Jew was marked with a yellow Star of David. They were also forced to perform hard labor, but continued to live in their homes until December 1941. On December 20, 1941, a ghetto was created. It was fenced in with barbed wire and guarded by local police. The first Aktion was conducted on August 19, 1942, by German Security Police, the Gendarmerie, helped by local policemen. On this day, about 200 Jews, according to a German report, or 450, according to a Soviet report, deemed unfit for work -- mainly women, children, and elderly people were selected and marched to the sand pits located north of Yaltushkiv close to the village of Myhalivtsi. Upon arrival, they were forced to strip naked and were shot on the edge of the pit in groups of five. Isolated shootings continued for several days after the Aktion when some Jews were found in hiding and taken to be shot at the same site. On October 15, 1942, several hundred (1,194, according to the Soviet archives) Jews still detained in the ghetto were taken to the same site, forced to take off their clothes and shot dead. Apparently German rural policemen from the area and local auxiliary policemen carried out this murder operation.
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