On September 18, 1941 the residents of the collective farms Chervona Zirka and Arbet were taken to a school building at Chervona Zirka. There the Jews were separated from the non-Jews and the former were told they were going to be resettled. About 600 Jews of all ages and both sexes were then taken to a well 1.5 kilometers west of Chervona Zirka, forced to strip to their underwear, and shot dead. The perpetrators of the massacre were apparently German and local auxiliary policemen.
Galina Ogienko, who was born in 1913 and lived in Chervona Zirka kolkhoz during the war years, testified:
… On September 18, 1941 the German occupiers summoned the Jews to a meeting in the school of Chervona Zirka [the kolkhoz] under the pretext of resettling them on a separate plot.
After being separated from Russians and Ukrainians, they [the Jews] were surrounded by German gendarmes and taken to a well located 1.5 kilometers west of Chervona Zirka. After forcing them to strip to their underwear, at 3 p.m. the gendarmes began shooting them. After the shooting the gendarmes threw all the dead [bodies] into the well….
On that day a total of 600 Jews were shot, including old men, old women, and children….
Ivan Lobachevskiy, who was born in 1883 and lived in Chervona Zirka kolkhoz during the war years, testified:
… Immediately after the territory of the Molotovka rural council was occupied the German occupiers began repressive actions against the Jewish residents. On September 18, 1941 all the Jews were summoned to a meeting at the school of Chervona Zirka, ostensibly for resettlement on another plot [in another area]. During the meeting they were separated from the Russians and Ukrainians there and taken under the guard of gendarmes and [local auxiliary] policemen to a well located 1.5 kilometers west of the Chervona Zirka kolkhoz. At 3 p.m. the gendarmes started to shoot them. They shot a total of 600 people, including old men, old women, and children.
Before being shot all the Jews were forced to strip to their underwear and the policemen took all the better clothes for themselves. The dead bodies were thrown into the well by the policemen....
…On September 18, 1941 all the Jews living on the kolkhozes Arbayt [sic, should be Arbet] and Chervona Zirka were summoned to a meeting at the school of the Chervona Zirka kolkhoz under the pretext that they were going to be resettled. The Russians and Ukrainians who were at the meeting were separated from the Jews.
600 Jews, including old men, old women, and children, were taken, under guard by German policemen, to a well 1.5 kilometers west of Chervona Zirka and shot there. Before [the shooting], they were forced to strip naked. The shooting of the Jews started at 3 p.m. The bodies of those shot were thrown into the well….