Murder Story of Apostolovo Jews at the Animal Burial Ground in the Apostolovo Area

... [O]n July 13 [1942] we 140 people were loaded into two tractor-pulled trailers accompanied by a convoy - a "tachanka" [a cart with a machine gun in back of it] with 3 gendarmes armed with submachine-guns on it in front [of us], 4 mounted gendarmes at our sides, a passenger car with the heads of the Gestapo and the gendarmerie, and a cart full of policemen with a machine gun behind us. They drove us to a pit that had been prepared for the shooting. However, we on the trailers were in agreement that, since death awaited us in any case, we should all try to escape in an organized manner at the cry of "Hurrah." We chose the appropriate moment when we were passing through a narrow street. The sides of the trailer were open so, at the same time, we started to run in all directions. However, we were fired at by the gendarmes and policemen. Many were wounded or killed but 29 people, including myself, succeeded in escaping. The rest of our comrades were caught and put back onto the trailer and, then, shot at the pit. The shooting was carried out in following way: [the victims] were lined up, then called according to a list, forced to strip naked and kneel down [in groups] of 5 people facing the pit, and shot from rifles in the back of the head. Afterward, they [dragged the bodies] by their legs to the pit....

... Probably in June or July 1942 many people were shot in the village of Apostolovo. As many as 130 people were rounded up to be shot. [They, including Jews] were assembled in one building at the Apostolovo [railway] station, then all [of them] were loaded onto two big trucks [and] driven out of the village to the former animal burial ground, where a pit had been dug. During the ride there part of one of the trucks was opened and people began to escape. Shots were fired at them: 62 of them were killed and the rest scattered.... The shooting was carried out by Germans and Kalmyks and by policemen from Apostolovo village....