Murder Story of Simferopol Jews on the Feodosiya Road (Gas Vans)

Jews were being shot on December 11, 12, and 13. Bodies were hanging in the streets bearing signs that said: "For not obeying the decree." These were the people who had not come to the assembly points in time…. Several days before that, my wife had received papers confirming that she had been baptized. They hauled her to the Gestapo anyway, and when she was taken out to be shot, she went out of her mind... .

22.11. … On November 2, [1941] the Germans entered Simferopol.... A registration of all the Jews in Simferopol was carried out: their number amounted to 12,000 over the age of 14.... 7.12. Something terrible is going to happen. The rumor is circulating that the Jews are going to be shot to death by the Germans…. Of course, this is nonsense.… Yesterday, 6.12, an order was posted [around the city] requiring all Krymchak Jews to appear at appointed collection points with provisions for four days. The Jews were upset and they panicked; they believed that they would be sent to Ukraine…. The Krymchaks were going on foot and on carts to the appointed collection points…. Ominous rumors are being spread that all the Jews who have already appeared according to the order would be shot to death…. On 9.12.1941 an order was issued that the rest of the Jews had to assemble [at the collection points] with provisions for four days…. The last day [to appear at the collection points] was December 10. At two o'clock I accompanied my friends [the Rozenberg couple]…. About 10 Jews with Stars of David [on their chests] were going on foot…. Anna [the wife] was so weak that she couldn't carry her bundle so Reuvim [the husband] took it on his free shoulder. The Russian women who passed by were crying and lamenting. They hugged and kissed Anna…, saying: "May God preserve your life." … Only then… did I understand that I was accompanying my friends not to their evacuation but, most likely, to their death.... 14.12.41 On December 12 I again went to the labor office (a collection point).…When I was passing Sovnarkom Lane, several huge long trucks that were completely covered roared past me by at top speed. Terrible screams of women could be heard from the trucks. In the last truck the black canvas was torn so that one could make out some faces and many waving hands. An indistinct cry was heard from the truck. Suddenly out of this shouting I heard a woman's voice calling: "Alexander Gavrilovch! [my name]"…. Then I heard another cry "Lenochka!" (the name of Anna's daughter]. Then the truck turned left and immediately disappeared from my sight.… I began to think: it was probably Anna who was shouting to me from the truck, her cry "Lenochka!" meant that I should tell her daughter about her mother's fate. That day I was certain that the Jews were being taken away by truck to be shot.… I was told that the drivers who had been transporting the Jews in the trucks later provided terrible details about the killing of the Jews…. I learned the following: the Jewish men were taken to the murder site separately from the women and children, all the Jews who were going to be killed were forced to strip to their underwear… the peasants [who were living in the area] heard the shootings and the screaming of the Jews, … [afterwards] they saw trenches covered with earth where the Jews were buried.…

… Another order - that all the Jews had to assemble with "things they needed" at the Studencheskyi gorodok [a collection point] – shocked us. Many were slow to show up, hoping for a miracle. In any case we [the family] got there on the second day, when the shooting was going on. There were many people there standing, sitting, lying – the elderly and the weak, who didn't manage to flee in time. The people were taken [to the shooting site] in groups. Our turn came on December 16…. The distance from Studencheskaya Street to the Feodosiya road was only a stone's throw, but [it seemed like] we were walking and walking. My father was carrying his new born niece. His sister had many children, all boys. The long awaited daughter was finally born, only to be killed very soon. I don't even remember if she had a name. My mother took me by the hand.… The anti-tank trench, which had been prepared for the defense of the city, was now made deeper by women who had been taken by force by the Germans from nearby houses. The people were shot to death in front of them. Sometimes they were forced to dig more if there wasn't enough room [in the trench]. All this I know from the accounts of others since only four steps saved me from dying in this huge mass grave…. When our group drew level with the group of women, my mother pushed me forward suddenly, throwing me towards them.... I just heard behind my back a ferocious shouting, German curses and tumult, but we were already running away with all our strength….

... Mass shooting were taking place near Kurman. They said that POWs were digging mass graves. The shootings were being done with submachine guns….. Just by connecting separate sources in this way, I think that this was on the Feodosia highway, by the antitank ditch....

… In Simferopol many thousand Soviet civilians were tortured to death. Metropolitan Nikolai writes that "in a huge field covered with thousands of colorful flowers… we saw a huge dark gray square of human ashes. The people had been driven there by force, doused with tar, and burned alive. The residents of the village located about 1 - 1.5 kilometers from the execution site heard the heartbreaking screaming of the burning people…".

... I am a Krymchak [Jew]. I lost my husband and two brothers at the front [i.e., in combat]. My mother and I remained with [my] three children. We went to the collection point together. We were told that at first we would be taken to Karasubazar, the center of Krymchak settlement since that would be a collection point for the Krymchaks from all over Crimea, and from there we would all be sent to Bessarabia. We were told to take with us only our most valuable things and food for two days. We were held there [at the collection point] for two days and on December 11 [the Germans] began to take people away. First to be taken were the strongest men.… we would be [taken] in the next round. Then somebody suddenly noticed - the same truck returned in an hour although the road to Karasubazar was more than 40 kilometers [each way]. Of course, everybody became upset. One truck came back carrying toys…. Everyone immediately panicked. The people had already been forced onto trucks, five of us in each truck. We approached an anti-tank trench from some flat terrain. I was the last one in the row. I don't remember falling into the trench, the dead bodies pressed me toward the wall. We weren't covered with earth. It was cold so the bodies did not rot. I was [in the trench] for three days. There was a cold rain, then it began snowing, then again rain, then frost. During [the third] night I climbed out of the trench. My slip was covered with blood and frozen solid like tin. We had been shot in our underwear. When I emerged [from the trench] - [I saw] snow all around. I made my way to the village of Mazanka, begging for bread and water. [The village residents] refused to open their doors, telling me to go away, saying that because of you [if we help you] we will be shot to death.… When I was leaving the village, one child, a boy, caught up with me and handed me a piece of bread and some water. In someone's yard I saw a woman's skirt and a man's shirt hanging on a rope, drying. I took them. That was my only sin. I entered a field … and put on [these] wet clothes....