Murder story of Semenovka Jews in the Semenovka Birch Grove

… In November [1941] – I do not remember the date – all the Jews, young and old, including me, were imprisoned in a cold room and kept there for one day. We innocent people were beaten several times during the night and the next day were taken out to the street, put into groups of 4, and marched with a guard of 20 SS-men to Berezky ravine, where there was a ditch. While we were being guarded on the way to the ditch, I decided to run away when I was 100-200 meters from the ditch. I struck the German guard who was walking next to me on the head with my fist and knocked him down; then I ran into the forest. While I was running, three Germans ran after me, firing all the time. They wounded me in the leg and the left side of my body. In the forest I succeeded in escaping from the Germans. I then crawled to the edge of the forest, where I was able to see the innocent Jewish civilians being shot. Each time the Germans took four people to the edge of the ditch and shot them. They threw the children into the ditch alive. Afterward, they covered them over ... and left …

… In November 1941 a German SS battalion arrived in Semenovka commanded by Captain Gebel (born in 1895), who gave the order to resettle all the Jews of Semenovka on Kovalovka Street, where they were guarded by Germans and policemen. In early December 1941 all the Jews were ordered to appear at the school on Market Square. When all the Jews had gathered, they were surrounded by German SS soldiers, arrested, and imprisoned in a basement, where they were held for one day. The next day they were taken under guard to a birch grove and brutally shot … A total of 55 Jews were shot on that day …