1 Execution site(s)
Witnesses interviewed: 7 (N°1169, 1170, 1171, 1172, 1173, 1174, 1175). Including one eyewitness. (N°1171). Lidia Ivanovna S. (N°1173): "The trucks stopped by the road, then, the victims were conducted on foot towards the mine. The Germans stood in line to build a chain between the trucks and the mine, everything went really quickly. One could hear gunfire, and the Germans had dogs."
"In the autumn of 1941, German soldiers arrived in Gorlovka and began to carry out their arrests and shootings. I know this because I live next to the railroad, behind which the Germans shot the inhabitants of Gorlovka in the middle of the day: communists, activists, Jews. For about a month, almost every day, there were shootings. I could see groups of 20-40 people being brought in, being forced to dig pits for them and being shot. I could hear the firing of automatic and non-automatic weapons, the screaming, the crying, of women, men and children. You couldn’t leave your house to go and see because the German soldiers surrounded the perimeter where the shootings were taking place, but since it was 200-300m from my apartment, I was able to learn how a shooting took place. First, people were brought in to dig pits, guards were watching them, but they didn’t forbid people to look. Once the pits were ready, guards stationed all along the railroad so that no one would come and look. After the shootings, the clothes of those shot, who were killed in their underwear, were loaded into these trucks. The Germans took with them the clothes that were in good condition and left the ones that were in bad condition next to the pits." [Deposition of a local villager, given to the State Extraordinary Commisison, in 1944; GARF 7021-72-19]
BStU, MfS HA ZUV 6 Bd.2. "During my presence in Gorlovka, where I was staying with a group until June 1942 as a translator, around 300 Soviet citizens – in my estimation – were shot by the SD."
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