The Gnilopyat River, Berdichev
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615550
Gnilopyat River Related Communities
Berdichev Related Murder Sites
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Murder story of Berdichev Jews in the Gnilopyat River
Murder Site
Gnilopyat (Berdichev)
Ukraine (USSR)
In the first weeks of the occupation, the Germans forced a group of Jewish women to swim from one bank of the Gnilopyat River to the other, until they drowned.
Related Resources
Written Accounts
From the article of Vasily Grossman “The Murder of the Jews in Berdichev”:
...They [Germans] seized several dozen women, ordered them to undress, and declared to these unfortunates that those who managed to swim to the other shore would be allowed to live. Because of the stone dam, the river was very wide at this point. Most of the women drowned before reaching the opposite shore. Those who did manage to swim to the west shore were forced to swim back. The Germans amused themselves by watching the drowning women lose their strength and go to the bottom. The amusement continued until the last woman was drowned...
Ehrenburg, Ilya and Grossman, Wassili. The black book : the ruthless murder of Jews by German-Fascist invaders throughout the temporarily-occupied regions of the Soviet Union and in the death camps of Poland during the war of 1941-1945 . New York : Holocaust Library, 1981, p. 15.
Gnilopyat (Berdichev)
river
Murder Site
Ukraine (USSR)
49.903;28.594
Photos
The Gnilopyat River, Berdichev
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615550