Murder story of Mstislavl Jews in the Kagalnyi Ditch

Early in the morning of October 15, 1941 a group of Germans from Einsatzkommando 8, commanded by Krauze, arrived in Mstislavl (according to some sources, the group included some Ukrainians). About 850 Jews of Mstislavl and others who had recently been transported to the town from surrounding villages (according to different sources, the Jewish population of Mstislavle at that time ranged from 640 to 1,300) were collected at the market square of the town (possibly in the yard of the teachers' seminary). There Jews were searched and their valuables and good clothes were taken from them. The men were separated from the women and children. A number of young Jewish women were taken by the policemen to a store and raped. Those who refused to go were killed on the spot. Then, with the assistance of Belarusian policemen, the Germans took all the Jews to the Kagalnyi Ditch, where local Belarusians had dug a pit. When the Jews arrived at the murder site, the Germans had about 30 strong Jewish males expand the pit and, when they had finished this job, they [the diggers] were shot. Then the rest of the Jews, first the men, then the women and children, were made to undress and were shot to death. Those Mstislavl Jews who were unable to walk by themselves were shot in their homes and their bodies were brought by cart to the same pit. Later Jews who were caught in the area of Mstislavl were also killed at the site. During the following months of the occupation other people, including 35 Roma and some Russians and Belarusians, most of whom were accused of being Communists or of aiding the partisans, were also killed at the Kagalnyi Ditch murder site.