Murder Story of Skadovsk Jews at the Chervoniy Kolosok Collective Farm

March 28, 1962 From the Interrogation of Kurt Bruno Günter K., a former member of Sonderkommando 10b: …During my entire operational activity, only once did I have to take part in an execution in which a large number of Jews – men, women, and children – were shot. Today, I can no longer recall the name of the place where this happened. It was, however, in [any case] in Ukrainian territory, and before [our arrival in] Skadovsk [sic] – I remember that for sure. According to my estimate, 300 persons were shot in an anti-tank trench during this execution outside that locality. Neither do I know the distance between this ant-tank trench and the locality, although we did drive to the execution site in a truck. The anti-tank trench lay in flat terrain. By the time of my arrival at the execution site, some of the doomed people were already present, while the rest of them were brought to the site by truck during the execution itself. For some of the time, I was assigned to an execution squad as a marksman to shoot Jews. The Jews were taken to the anti-tank trench to be shot. They were forced to stand in the trench, facing its far side. The execution squad was positioned on the near edge of the trench, so they had to shoot from above on the Jews standing in the trench. The marksmen would wait for an order to open fire, which was given by an SS officer whose name was unknown to me (alternatively, I may have forgotten it). We, the members of the execution squad, had to turn around after firing the shots, until the next group of delinquents [sic] was brought and put into position. We would then turn around, following orders, and fire again, having received a new order [to open fire]. The orders were: "Turn around!" – followed immediately by: "Open Fire!" After a while, the marksmen were replaced. The members of the SK [Sonderkommando] who were not assigned to the execution squad had to guard the arriving Jews and escort them from the assembly point to the trench. The site where the Jews were shot lay some 40-50 meters from the place where they were waiting under guard to be shot; thus, they could see the process of the execution. Those who were waiting behaved in very different ways. Some of them awaited the execution with stoic calmness, while others became hysterical. There were no attempts to escape. I did not see the Jews being robbed of gold, valuables, or clothes before their execution. If they had any packages with them, these would be thrown into the trench after the bodies, or else the delinquents [sic] themselves took them [to the trench]. The execution took place in the morning. I do not know how long it lasted. Nor do I know from where the Jews had been brought to the execution site.