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

… On September 2 [1944] the Commission carried out an examination of the site of the atrocities of the German-Fascist occupiers. The examination discovered 2 graves 300 meters from the village of Novovorontsovka on its western side at the animal burial ground. Eleven … decomposed bodies of women and children age 2 to 8 were discovered with the opening of the first grave. 12 bodies of men (in a similar state of decomposition) were discovered during the opening of the second grave. In both graves the bodies were scattered in a totally haphazard manner. All the skulls of the dead were split either in back or at the temple…. The nature of the damage to the skulls indicates that it resulted from shooting by firearms. The examination of bodies in both graves did not find any traces of clothing [on the bodies] of those murdered. The Commission [thus] believes that all of those killed were made to strip naked before being shot. It was established according to the witnesses… that on September 24, 1941 the shooting of innocent Soviet civilians was carried out at the site where the bodies were discovered. The shooting was carried by an SS unit that came from Bolshaya Aleksandrovka County....