Murder Story of Maydorf Jews at an Abandoned Well in Maydorf

… In September 1941, at the time of the German-Fascist occupation of the Emes Rural Council, including all the kolkhozes there, an SS murder squad that had arrived from Kalinindorf, as we were informed by surviving residents of the 16th Plot, together with the local residents mentioned below, including Pavel Yukhimovich Chernenko, Fyodor Nikitovich Steblov, Khariton Stepanovich Roy, and Andrei Grigoryevich Gerasimenko, carried out the shooting of innocent Soviet Jewish residents who were living on the 16th Plot, near a well four kilometers south of the 16th Plot, at Vasilyevskie Otruba. The monsters mentioned above shot 161 men, women, and children there and threw all the shooting victims into the well, which they used as a grave….

…On this date the commission carried out an examination of the sites of atrocities of the German-Fascist occupiers. It was established by the examination that Vasilyevskie Otruba is located 4 kilometers from the village [and] that there is a 60-meter deep well (above the ravine south of the village) that was abandoned before the war by the population of the plot mentioned above [16th Plot]. On September 26, 1944 [sic, should be 1941], at the time of the German-Fascist occupation of the area of the 16th Plot, the Germans used the well as a grave where they carried out the shooting of innocent Soviet Jewish residents. The shooting was carried out by an SS murder squad that had arrived from Kalinindorf. According the information from some surviving villagers, local residents of the 16th Plot, including Pavel Yukhimovich Chernenko, Fyodor Nikitovich Steblov, Khariton Stepanovich Roy, [and] Andrei Grigoryevich Gerasimenko, participated in the shooting. The persons listed above, together with some Germans, shot the residents who had been taken from the village, men, women, and children, a total of 161 people, at the well mentioned above and threw all [their bodies] into the well….

… On September 25, 1941 at 8 a.m, with German help, the former village elder Rodion Fyodorovich Dmitrichenko collected [the local Jews] in a store, supposedly for a meeting. 161 men, women, and children were assembled there. At 10 a. m., after the arrival of a German nationalist [sic], all the Jews were told that they should take belongings with them since they were going to be resettled. After they complied with this [order], all of them arrived at the place they were told to show up. At 12 they were divided into two groups, the men and women separately, for the night and locked into two empty warehouses where they spent the night. On September 26 at 11 a. m. a passenger car carrying three officers with death heads on their peaked caps and sleeves arrived at the 16th Plot. Two more trucks with 15 German members of a murder squad arrived with them. At 12 all the Jews were taken out to the street, the able-bodied men and women were lined up, while the elderly and small children were loaded onto wagons; after that those on foot were taken in the direction of a well 3-4 kilometers from the village. After them those on wagons were driven [in the same direction], guarded by the following people: Pavel Yefimovich Chernenko, Khariton Stepanovich Roy, Fyodor Steblov, [and] Andrei Grigorievich Gerasimenko. After they were taken to the ravine; according to what was said by the people who drove them, they were taken [in groups] of 5-10 to the well. After 2-3 hours they [the perpetrators] returned to the village where a good lunch was prepared for them….

…On September 25, 1941 a nationalist whose last name I don't know arrived at the Plot with an order for the elder of the 16th plot, Rodion Fyodorovich Dmitrichenko, to collect all the Jews at 8 a. m. at a store, ostensibly for a meeting. 161 men and women with children were collected. They were told they were going to be resettled and were ordered to take their belongings with them. They complied and all arrived with their possessions. At night they were separated: the men were locked into one empty building and the women with children into another. They spent the night there. On September 26 at 11 a. m. a passenger car carrying three German officers with death heads on their peaked caps and sleeves arrived from somewhere. They were accompanied by two trucks with 15 German members of a murder squad. At 12 [noon] the Jews were taken out to the street: the men, women, and teenagers were lined up. The small children and elderly people, who could not walk, were loaded onto carts and driven after the line of the adults. They were taken to a well 3-4 kilometers from the village. They were taken by the German accomplices Pavlo Yu.[khimovich] Chernenko, Fyodor Nikitovich Steblov, Andrei Grigoryevich Gerasimenko, [and] Khariton Stepanovich Roy. After they were taken to the well, they were forced to undress [in groups] of 5-6 and to lie down next to the well. Then they were shot. Afterwards the shooting victims were thrown into the well. This lasted until all of them had been shot and buried. [Then] they [the murderers] returned to the village, where they had a good lunch prepared for them at the house of the village elder.