Kolodyanka (Kolodianka) | Zhytomyr

/ Ambiance ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum A mill that used to belong to a Jew ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum The cellar where the Jews were locked up prior to the shooting. It is allocated about 20m away from the shooting site. ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum Inside the cellar where the Jews were locked up before the shooting ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum Ananiy M., born in 1927, an eyewitness: “Our neighbor Malka Voikova stayed in hiding. When my mother’s sister died, my mother gave her passport to this woman. So she managed to escape with her children to eastern Ukraine.” ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum Yahad team during the interview at the execution site ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum Zinaida K., born in 1928: “The Jews were brought to the field in a column. There were women, men and children amongst them. In all, they were 30.” ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum The execution site of about 250 Jews, located 300m northwest of the village ©Victoria Bahr/Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Kolodyanka

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field close to the railroads
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1943
Number of victims:
250

Witness interview

Zinaida K., born in 1928, recalls: “I saw an execution of Jews from my vegetable garden. The field where the Jews were shot was located 300m away from our garden. About 30 men, women and children were killed by the Hungarians. They were divided in two groups and killed in two pits that had been dug in advance. Each group stayed around the pit and when the Hungarians fired with submachine guns, they fell directly into it. But it was not the only time that Jews were shot. As far as I remember there were two or three executions.” (Testimony n°1647, interviewed in Kozhushky on April 28th, 2013)

Historical note

Kolodyanka is a village located 110 km west of Zhytomyr. The earliest known Jewish community dates back to the late 18th century. The Jews were merchants or artisans. Some worked on the mill. There was no synagogue, but the Jews were religious. The Jewish children went to the same school as non-Jews.  In 1926 the Jewish population numbered 41 people. The village was occupied by the German army in July 1941. 

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Immediately after the occupation, all Jewish men were gathered and forced to do manual labor: road construction at the beginning, and then deforestation. Once there was no need of their labor, they were killed, supposedly in the same forest. The remaining Jews from the village along with those from the nearby villages were killed in September, 1941. According to the local witnesses interviewed by Yahad, about 250 Jews were, first locked up for 5 days in the cellar located not far away from the railroad, and then were shot in the pit dug by themselves. The execution was conducted by the SS unit. The shootings lasted for about two weeks, besides the isolated shootings that were conducted against the Jews who had managed to stay in hiding until then.

Nearby villages

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