Murder Story of Daraganovo Jews at the Doroganovo Orphanage

… With my brother Eduard and the girls Tamara and Rosa Parakhnei, I sat on the grass under the awning of the Kaminsky’s hut on Peschanka Street (now Pochtovaya Street). We saw a long column of Jews from Daraganovo, surrounded by policemen. There were men and women, who were holding young children by the hand. They had rounded up these Jews from all of Daraganovo. We were sitting with Mamma and there were two other adults –Yadya and Sabina Kaminskiy. One Jewish woman from the column took a large woven shawl from her shoulders and said [to my mother]: “Kuzmicheva, take it” and threw the shawl to us. However, old man Kaminskiy approached and told mother not to take it or the police would take us too. They took the whole column behind the slaughterhouse where livestock are killed. We then heard screaming, cries, children’s squeals, and shots. Toward evening, without saying anything to our parents, I, my brother, Rosa, and Tamara went to where the shooting had taken place. The pit was covered with sand, now piled half a meter high. The earth of this hill heaved – it rose and fell. We realy caught it from our parents for having visited the grave. They were afraid because some police might have remained there and killed us too. There had only been Jews in the column.