Murder Story of Yasen Jews at the Yasen Railway Station

… Benya lived on the next street. Benya had a daughter who lived somewhere far away, but before the war she came with her two small, fair-haired daughters to live with her parents. They didn’t look Jewish and could have survived. She was told to move to the country and say that she was a refugee but she didn't want to abandon her parents. They were all shot. People say that, before she was killed, she uttered the following words: “Farewell, good people, farewell world!” and then fell into the pit. Among the other Jews [murdered] were Kraverskiy and Koval. Much time has passed since then, I don’t remember. The ones who did the killing were Germans and policemen, both local and from other places; they used automatic weapons....

Until 1942 the Germans didn’t touch the Jews. They lived in their homes, ate from their kitchen gardens, and moved freely around the village. But they [the Jews] sensed what was awaiting them. When they visited us, they said to Mamma that this was their punishment from God. Mamma tried to calm them, but they knew that things would not be all right. During the last 2-3 months the Jews had to live in three houses for several weeks. They were guarded by policemen, who were supervised by a Finn, but the Jews were held in a different place after they tried escaping to the forest. They didn’t get far because the Germans caught sight of them with their binoculars. One of the three houses, where the Gofmans lived, still exists. A local policeman came and warned the Jews that they were going to be shot. We saw how the Jews were taken to be shot. They were killed in February 1942. They were shot by six policemen and the single Finn. There were many of them, including many young lads under army age and men over 50, who were no longer taken into the army. There were many men and women. I don’t understand why they didn’t try to escape. Of course, some would have been killed, but others might have saved themselves and joined the partisans in the forest. When they began to shoot the Jews, Mota Koval ran through the woods and the bushes, … and escaped. Then Mota reached the partisans; they gave him clothes and fed him, and he joined the ranks of the partisans. He was the only one of our Jews who remained alive.