Hrabove (Grabove, Grabovo) | Odesa

/ Local ambiance in the village of Hrabove © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum Yefym V., born in 1932: "My friend, Shlimko and his family were calmly walking when 2 Romanians noticed them. They started to shoot at them and they killed all of them. It was during the winter." © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum Grygoriy B., born in 1934: “Not far from here, there was a slaughterhouse where there was a paved path. That is where the Jews were shot.” © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum Yefym V. with the Yahad team on the bridge where the witness saw the family of Shmilko being shot © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum The abandoned house which used to belong to the family of Pinia. The entire family was shot dead on the spot in the vegetable garden while trying to escape. © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum The abandoned monument erected by the survivors for the perished Jewish families, among which are the Savronky, Kogan, Yanovsky, Zilberman, Mil families © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum Yahad team at the burial place with the witness who clearly identified the silo pit where the Jewish victims shot throughout the village were buried. Their remains are still there without a proper burial place. © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum Grygoriy B., born in 1934 points out to the Yahad team where the slaughterhouse used to be located. It doesn’t exist anymore. © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum The view at one of the execution sites. Afterwards, all of the Jews shot at different places were buried by the local villagers in a silo pit. © Jordi Lagoutte/Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Hrabove

2 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Behind the slaughter house/On the bridge/ Close to the Jewish house
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944

Witness interview

Grygoriy B., born in 1934, remembers the shooting: « A large number of Jews was brought here. They had been assembled for while in different places. I don’t know how many there were in all. They shot one group and then…Not far from here there was a slaughterhouse where animals were slaughtered. Behind the slaughter house, there was a paved path. That is where the Jews were shot. With other children, we watched the shooting from another side. We were curious to know how the people would be killed. After the shooting, local boys, older then me, who were born in 1925 or 1926 were requisitioned to load the corpses onto the sleigh and to transport them to the place called Stinka, where a ditch had been dug. All the corpses were thrown into this ditch, some of the victims were still alive. The ground was moving for a while. All the Jews living in the village were killed. I don’t know how many there were but they were numerous.” (Eyewitness n°2048, interviewed in Hrabove, on May 20, 2016)

Historical note

Hrabove is a village in the district of Kodyma, located close to the border to Moldova, 270km northwest from Odessa. According to the witness, there were 15 Jewish families living in the village on the eve of the war. Some of them rented rooms from the local villagers, others had their own houses. They owned small shops. There were also artisans among them, such as shoemakers, tailors. There was no synagogue, but they still prayed in the house. For the big religious holidays, they went to Kodyma. The village was occupied by the Germans in early August 1941 and then it was put under Romanian rule.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

othing was known from the archives about the shootings in Grabove. All the Jews are believed to have been relocated to Moldova where they were most probably killed or sent to other places. Thanks to the accounts of local witnesses interviewed by Yahad, we could identify the names of the Jews who were killed and the mass graves. The executions were conducted in late August 1941 by Romanians. There were several places in the villages where the Jews were killed on the spot. Their corpses were buried in the silo pit nearby, called Stinka. There is no memorial at that place. Another execution of several Jewish families (Savronky, Kogan, Ianovsky, Zilberman, Mil) was conducted at the same period, close to the forest. According to a local witness, the Jews were taken there in groups of 4-5 people. Several columns of Jews from Moldova passed through the village in the direction of Kodyma where they were executed shortly after.

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