Murder Story of Dnepropetrovsk Jews at the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish Cemetery

... Then all the Jews were ordered to gather at the "Lux" store. I was told that this was being done to organize a ghetto. I collected a few things and went with my two children to the store. There we were formed into a column and led away. When asked where we were being taken, the Germans answered:"To camp." When we had passed the Jewish cemetery and come to the empty lot next to the railroad, we heard shooting. It was at that point that we realized why we had been brought here. Our turn did not come immediately, however, since it began to get dark. A crowd of several thousand people was driven up against a fence and surrounded on all sides. It was cold, and people were standing shoulder to shoulder in the icy mud. The sick and dying were simply lying in the mud. My youngest boy sat on my back, and the older boy (he was two) stood, leaning his face against my knees. In this fashion we passed the long autumn night. When dawn broke, German soldiers appeared on the lot with cases of bullets. They showed us these cases and guffawed. Then they started forcing us toward the pits at the end of the lot. The crowd lurched to one side, the sick fell under the feet of horror-crazed people, and everywhere screams, shots, and the cries of children could be heard. The Germans dragged old people who had been crushed by the crowd to the pits and buried them together with those who had been shot. I fell to my knees, embraced my two children, and it seemed to me that I was losing my mind. At that moment a man came up to me and said he would take me and the children out of the crowd. I still do not understand how he managed that, but in a few minutes we found ourselves with him next to a road which ran past the cemetery. We saw a cart being driven by a young peasant. We did not ask him for anything, but he himself stopped and offered to take me and the children to town. I said goodbye to my savior, and we left....

...On October 13, 1941 my mother's parents (our grandfather and grandmother), Yakov Borisovich Tartakovskiy (born in 1878) and Sofya Pavlovna Tartakovskaya (née Aptekman, born in 1878), with their two daughters, Polina (born in 1910, after her marriage her last name was Moginskaya) and Bronislava (our mother, born on October 15, 1914 after her marriage her last name was Kunichenko), two grandsons: Leonid - that is me (born on August 30, 1936), Valeriy (born on January 14, 1939), granddaughter Nellochka Moginskaya (born in 1938) and mother's cousin David Mironovich Topolinskiy (born in 1902) were taken in the column of Jews of the city of Dnepropetrovsk (as it later turned out) to be shot. The street we went along had a steep, long hill. It was hard to walk: we were not hurried by the Germans and policemen guarding the column. My cousin Nellochka wanted to drink. My Uncle David's wife (Aunt Anya, a Russian; the Germans allowed the members of mixed families and neighbors to accompany the column along the sidewalk as far as the streetcar circle on the city's outskirts) gave some water to Nellochka but a policemen knocked the cup out of her hand to prevent her from drinking. When we passed the streetcar circle and moved out toward the steppe... an automobile rammed the column not far from us just for fun. It [the car] did not have a roof or side windows so one could see quite well the Germans in it laughing. The wounded and terrified people screamed very loudly. I started to run to the right, toward the steppe. Mother caught me and brought me back to the road. The Germans brought the column to a halt in order to restore order.... When we were approaching the cemetery (it was demolished many years ago), we heard shots. The adults understood that we were not heading to the ghetto, but rather were going to be shot. The people started to push their children and grandchildren out of the column, hoping that the teenagers would succeed in saving themselves. But the bullets and the dogs were quicker than the children and, of course, no one succeeded in escaping.... In addition, in the area of the railway embankment, rain mixed with snow started to fall and we were going through a mess of clay, rain, and snow. It was very difficult to walk.... The Germans pushed forward anyone who lagged behind by using dogs while the policemen used sticks. The Germans had not managed to shoot everyone by nightfall. Those still alive were taken by force to the area of the water tower.... We had to stand in a big puddle, in the muck.... It was cold, our legs ached, and we were hungry.... The Germans first shouted "Zurück!" [Back!] to those who had gone ahead of most of the people and then they stopped shouting and killed [them]. The people took care of their bodily needs where they were. In the icy muck my feet froze. It was already almost dark when I got lucky: the man standing beside us fell face down into the mud and, after some time, Grandfather Yasha put me on the back of the dead man, where I sat during that evening, the night, and part of the next morning until we were taken to be shot. Mother stood beside me, her shoes, with her legs in them, had frozen to the puddle since the temperature had dropped to below zero. I sat on the dead body and pressed my face against my mother's knees. Mother held my brother Valeriy on her shoulders (during the night of October 13-14; he was 3 years old less 3 months).... My brother cried from the cold and hunger. My sister whimpered and said she was frozen and wanted to go home. I did not whimper, but asked "Why are we here?" However, not one of my relatives answered me. From various sides cries were heard during the evening, at night, and in the morning. Those standing beside me said: "He went mad. She went mad." Sometimes they said: "She is giving birth. Oh! She is giving birth in such cold in the mud!" The night was dark and very cold.... Somebody tried to escape at night since the snoring of an angry dog could be heard, but then there was the terrible scream of a man and, afterwards, silence.... At dawn Grandfather Yasha called the older men and they began to chant. I asked why the men were chanting. Grandmother Sonya told me that was what should be done. Several years afterwards, when I was older, Mother told me that before death the men were chanting "Hear, Oh, Israel!" [The Jewish prayer Sh'ma, traditionally recited, inter alia, before one's death].... We were approached by a German and some policemen. They took Grandfather Yasha... to load onto a cart people who had been shot or had died during the previous evening or night or that morning. He said farewell to us and, a bit later, we were taken to the ditch without him.... On the 13th Aunt Polya and Mother had shiny dark hair but overnight they became grey-haired. The Germans separated a group from the column and, together with some policemen, pushed them toward the ditch. After sleeping in the area overnight, people lost all control at the ditch or [earlier] on the way to the ditch . Everybody wanted to live, no one wanted to die.... When the group before us fell into the ditch and the man in charge of the shooting turned away from the ditch toward the next victims, he saw our mother, approached us, and started to talk. He was speaking and Grandmother Sonya translated. The man in charge of the shooting disobeyed Hitler's order regarding the total annihilation of Jews.... If I[lya].G[rigorievich]. Ehrenburg is correct ... our case was the only one when the lives of a Jewish woman and her 2 sons were saved during a mass shooting....

... On October 12, 1941 the owner of the place where I was working told my wife that she should get me out of there immediately. My wife came after me and, despite the fact that it was night, we left. On our way we could hear heartbreaking cries from some courtyards. I understood that the arrests had started. At night we arrived home and my arrival went unnoticed. In the morning of October 13, 1941, at 5 a.m., policemen knocked [at the gate to] the courtyard. Only I was on the list, the policemen asked my wife why she was not on the list. She answered that she was Russian so they took only me. I knew that I was going to be shot. I was taken to the main department store; many Jews were there aleady. When I arrived, the first group of 1,500-2,000 people was formed up to be sent away we did not know where. I was put into the second group. When we were taken under guard [but were still] some distance from the Jewish cemetery, we heard shooting and heartbreaking cries. We decided to run away... when we started to run, fire was directed at us; of course, not everybody could run since there were old men and women, children, and pregnant women, and women with infants. Many did not manage to escape, but many others, including me, did.