1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Anatoliy B., born in 1936, remembers: “I saw only six Jews being shot in a sand quarry. But I know that many other Jews were also killed there along with non-Jews. I lived close by and often, during the night, I heard human moans coming from the quarry, but my parents never let me go there.” (Testimony n°2217, interviewed in Askania-Nova on May 24th, 2017)
“I saw groups of 10-15 men, women and children consistently being taken from the prison to be shot in the sand quarries situated 700 meters south-east of Askania-Nova. [...]About 200 Jews were shot and buried in the sand quarries [...].” [Deposition of Yevheniia N. given to the State Extraordinary Commission on September 30th, 1944; RG 22.002M:7021-77-417 (p.69)]
Askania-Nova is located 145 km south-east of Kherson. It was founded in the early 19th century as a rural settlement of Chapli. In 1828, the Saxon Count Ferdinand, Anhalt Ketten, bought about 51,000 hectares of land to make a German agricultural colony. The estate was renamed Askania. In the late 19th century Friedrich Falz-Fein was the owner of this land. He founded a nature reserve, Askania-Nova, to protect the local native flora from farmers and the cattle breeders. In March of 1919, Askania-Nova was confiscated from the Falz-Fein family by the Red Army as part of the State Nationalization Program. In 1939, only 22 Jews lived in the settlement. They lived off agriculture and small-scale trade.
Askania-Nova was occupied by the German troops on September 14th, 1941. Shortly after the occupation, a new starosta as well as a new police was appointed by the Germans. The German kommandantur was created. Over the course of Yahad’s field work our team, with the help of local villagers, identified two execution sites of Askania Nova Jews; one is located in the sand quarry south-west of Askania Nova and another can be found close to the village of Henichesk. According to the historical sources, about 200 Jews were shot in Askania Nova in fall 1941. Along with the Jews, 15 prisoners of war were shot in October-November 1941.
For more information about the execution in Henichesk please refer to the corresponding profile.
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