1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Yevdokiya V., born in 1925: "Some of our local Jews, the ones who didn’t have time to evacuate, like the school principal's wife, for example, stayed in Ivanivka. The principal himself, Treiger Zinovi Borissovitch, was sent to the front, and the two women, his wife and her sister, hadn’t had time to escape, which is why they came to our house one day. At that moment a Romanian soldier entered our house and saw them. Since both of them looked Jewish, he became suspicious. It was very dangerous to hide Jews at that time. So my mother gave them some bread and led them behind the house so they could leave. I know that both of them, as well as the school principal, survived the war.
There was also a Jewish man, Rikhlis, who hid at our house. He used to work as a tractor driver at the kolkhoz, if I remember correctly. He came to our house to ask us to hide him. Since we were all from the same village and worked in the same kolkhoz team, my mother hid him under the bed. We didn’t think he’d stay long, but he remained hidden for three weeks. In the house, we only had one room and a small kitchen area. He was hidden under the bed, and we children slept on the bed. Then three weeks went by, and the Romanian authorities settled down in the village. So my mother asked him what we should do, and he said that, of course, he had to leave. Because if they’d found him, all seven members of our family would’ve been shot! So he left." (Testimony n°YIU1239U, interviewed in Ivanivka, on July 23, 2011)
" […] In August 1941, at Rotovaya balka ravine, above the Yanovka [today Ivanivka] medical hospital, gendarmes and Romanian soldiers whose names are unknown shot 23 people, residents of Yanovka, and shot a convoy of 319 people who had been deported from an unknown location. In total, 342 people were shot." [Act No. 1 drawn up by the Extraordinary State Soviet Commission (ChGK), on November 21, 1944; Copy USHMM RG.22-002M, Reel 6 (39), p.17]
Ivanivka, formerly known as Yanovka, is located approximately 65 km (40,3 mi) north of Odesa in the Berezivka district of the Odesa Oblast.
In 1897, the village was home to 1,438 Jewish inhabitants, who made up 75% of its population. During the Soviet era, the community had a Jewish elementary school alongside a local Jewish cemetery. By 1939, the Jewish population had decreased to 353 people, accounting for 19% of the village's residents.
Before the Second World War, Ivanivka was typical of southern Ukrainian agricultural settlements and shtetls. Most local Jewish families were engaged in artisanal trade and crafts or worked at the collective farm.
Although the precise number of Jewish residents living in Ivanivka immediately before the invasion is unrecorded, a local witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, Yevdokiya V., born in 1925, recalled that only a small number remained there at that time.
Ivanivka, like the surrounding area, was occupied by German troops on August 10, 1941, and, on September 1, 1941, was transferred to the Romanian civilian administration as part of the Transnistria Governorate.
According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, Yevdokiya V., born in 1925, most of the local Jews managed to evacuate before the arrival of the occupation forces, while some were mobilized into the Red Army and left for the front. At the beginning of the occupation, the remaining Jews tried to find refuge among local residents, including Yevdokiya's family, who hid a Jewish man in their house for approximately three weeks.
According to archival sources, in August 1941, 342 Jewish people, including 23 local residents and 319 Jewish refugees from Moldova, were shot in the Rotovaya balka ravine, located on the outskirts of Ivanivka behind the hospital building. Although archival records state that the shooting was conducted by gendarmes and Romanian soldiers, Yevdokiya V., who saw a large column of Jews, including numerous children, being led to the killing site, stated that the column was escorted by only two armed Germans. Shortly thereafter, she heard gunfire and screaming coming from the ravine. Today, the killing site in Ivanivka is commemorated with a monument; however, it is dedicated to only approximately 30 local Jews and does not mention the Jewish refugees from Moldova.
According to available archival sources, additional killings of Jews were conducted in Ivanivka over the following period, including the shooting of 10 Jews in October 1941, 84 Jews from Odesa in February 1942, and 4 Jewish children in August 1943. However, today, the exact location of their killing sites remains unknown.
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