Murder Story of Khotimsk Jews at the Linen Factory in Khotimsk

… There was a certain Shagov, a Communist Party member and a Soviet judge in Khotimsk, who subsequently became a judge for the Germans. His wife was a Jew, Riva Gurevich and they had a 2-year old daughter named, I believe, Lenochka. When they took the Jews to shoot them, he [Shagov] sent a policeman to put them [his wife and daughter] into the column of those condemned to death. When the column of Jews heading for execution passed Kolkhoznaya Street, where Shagov lived with his family, the Russian neighbors could not bear this and grabbed Shagov’s daughter away by force. They took her to her father, saying that this innocent child should remain among the living. ‘We will help you raise her,” they added. When these women left, that scum, that monster who betrayed his country, ordered the policemen to take the child to be killed. He managed to throw the tiny one alive into the pit where the murdered Jews were lying. [Before] when the policeman was carrying the child along the street to the murder site, the child cried, calling for her mother, who could no longer hear the wailing of her daughter. The neighbor women stood there, weeping and cursing the brute of a father....

Respected Nina Isakovna, I received your letter, which I am now rushing to answer. You ask about your family - your father, mother, and sister. I have to tell you that your father Isak, your mother Eta, and your sister Chana, her husband, and their little daughter were murdered by the accursed German beasts. On September 4, 1942 the fascists killed about 700 Jews in Khotimsk. On September 1943 they burned down almost all of Khotimsk. All of Tsentralnaya Street, including my house, was destroyed, as well as all of my clothes and footwear. I had nothing left. Recently I received a letter from your sister Sara, from Chelyabinsk District; she also asked me to inform her about your relatives and I answered her. Please write. I wish you good health. Respectfully yours, K. Khucheva