Murder story of Kerch Jews in the Bagerovo Anti-Tank Trench

... An order was posted in town: all Jews – from small children to old men – were required to appear for registration. Those capable of work would be given work, and children and old people would be provided with bread. Anyone who did not have a document stamped by the registrar would be shot. I went and registered together with my family.… [after the couple managed to hide their youngest son]. One morning two policemen and a German came into my apartment. The German read aloud my name, my wife's, and those of both children from a piece of paper. He said: "Take the things you need most, since you are being sent to work on a collective farm, and your apartment will be occupied by other people. Take your two children with you – fourteen-year-old Yakov and four-year-old Bentsion. Where are they?" "That is a mistake", I answered "We don't have any children"…. The German wrote something down and ordered us to follow him…. We were brought to the prison. It was filled to overflowing. There we found all our friends and acquaintances. Since no one knew why or for how long we had been arrested, the most terrible thoughts came into our heads. Everyone was excited because of the crowding and gloomy forebodings. Children were crying, and people were talking loudly; it was enough to make a person go mad. Toward evening the head of the prison arrived. "Citizens, there is no reason to be upset!" he said in a saccharine voice. 'Get some sleep, rest up, and tomorrow we'll take you to your collective farms to work. You will receive two kilos of bread per day." The people calmed down.… The next morning five trucks drove up to the prison. I, my wife, and our friends could not even get close to the trucks – so great was the shoving and pushing. The people wanted to get out of the prison as soon as possible and find freedom in the collective farms.… We all remained behind, even thought the trucks kept coming back for new passengers all day. That night someone remarked that it was strange that the truck took only twenty-five minutes for a round trip. Where could they take the people in such a short period?... In the morning the trucks came again, and we, together with our friends, finally got places. I sensed that something was wrong as soon as we left town. Before I managed to think things over, I saw a mountain of clothing and the anti-tank trenches. It was at precisely this point that the truck stopped, and we were ordered to get out. We found ourselves surrounded by soldiers pointing rifles at us. Legs, arms, and still-moving parts of bodies barely covered with earth protruded from a pit. For a second we were numb with horror. A fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl pressed up against me and cried: "I don't want to die!" We were all so shaken that it was as if we had awakened. I will never forget that girl! Her cry lives in my blood, my brain, my heart. They began to tear off our outer clothes and herd us toward the pit - directly towards the bodies of the people who had been shot.… The ring surrounding us became tighter and tighter. We were pressed up to the very edge of the pit and fell into it. At that moment shots rang out, and those who had fallen immediately began to be covered with earth. I said good-bye to my wife. As we stood, embracing each other, a bullet struck her in the head, and the blood spurted in my face. I picked her up and began to look for a place to lay her down. At that moment, however, I myself was knocked off my feet, and other people fell on top of me. I lay unconscious for a long time. My first sensation was that the hot mass on which I lay was swaying. I didn't understand where I was or what had happened. I was being crushed by the weight on top of me. I wanted to wipe off my face, but I did not know where my hand was. Suddenly I opened my eyes and saw the stars gleaming vey high above me. I recalled everything, gathered up my strength, and pushed away the earth that was covering me. I even dug in the earth lying around me in an attempt to find my wife. But it was dark all around. Each time I would take someone's head in my hands and peer into the face to determine if it was a woman. I touched the faces with my fingers in the hope of recognizing her by touch. Finally I found her; she was dead. I crawled out of the pit and set out in a random direction. I saw a light and went to the peasant hut from which it emanated. There were three men and two women there. Evidently they guessed immediately what had happened. The women removed my shirt, which had been smeared in blood, put iodine on my wounds, gave me a fresh shirt, fed me, and gave me a cap. And I left. Along the road a woman asked me: "Was Ilya Veniaminovich Valdman among you?". "Yes", I said, and the woman began to wring her hands and fell to the ground….

…on the third day the arrested people were taken in groups from the city prison and loaded onto trucks. The interval between the departure of the trucks and their return was about 20 minutes. I was in the prison together with my 18-year old daughter, who was a beauty, and both of us were sitting in one of the trucks. We already realized that we were being taken to be shot. I was crying, my daughter was comforting and embracing me. We were driven to the anti-tank trench, at the bottom of which many bodies were lying, and were stood at the edge (of the ditch). For the last time my daughter and I embraced each other and said farewell. After the first shots I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness, I saw that the Germans were breaking the jaws of the people who had been shot to death and pulling out their gold teeth. I had to refrain from moving. I had wounds on my head and hip. My daughter had been killed. Then I felt with horror that we were covered with earth, although some people who were lying near me were also still breathing and moaning. Fortunately my head and my right arm had not been covered with earth. After waiting for darkness, I crawled out from under the earth, kissed my daughter's left hand, which [also] had not been covered with earth, and somehow got away from this terrible site. I reached a nearby village. There I was given first aid by a Russian family….

… On November 29, [1941] our whole family appeared at 8 a.m. at Sennaya Square. By 12 noon several thousand people had gathered at the square. At that time the Gestapo and [local auxiliary] policemen were guarding the square. We were lined up there in rows of 3 and were taken to the prison. The Germans threw the adults and children into cells that were so crowded that it was impossible either to lie down or to sit. One child in our cell suffocated and died. During the night the prison commandant entered our cell several times when the children's crying was particularly intense and shouted: "Quiet!", Kharitonov, an old book-keeper, also suffocated and died in our cell. The police loaded the ill and those who couldn’t move onto wheelbarrows and took them to the prison. On December 1, in the morning, the commandant called me, my husband, and our children to appear at his office. There they took from us our belongings and the keys to our apartment, [they] wrote down our home address and then loaded us onto a truck. When the truck was full with about 20 people, the Germans drove us to the Bagerovo anti-tank trench. Upon our arrival at the trench, the policemen who were waiting for us threw us out of the truck. I fell to the ground and began begging the policemen to let my children go. Instead he forced me, along with a group [of other Jews] to the trench. At this time a second policemen came and began to take my coat from me. I asked him: Why are you taking my coat? What do you need it for? Are you going to live for a thousand years?" In response the policeman hit me on the head with great force with a rubber truncheon. My eyes went dark and I fell into the trench, unconscious. My children who were standing near me and were holding onto my skirt, fell down [into the trench] together with me. I regained consciousness minutes later and, while I was lying there, I saw the Fascist begin to take off the clothes of my husband, who was shouting and struggling. Then he managed to break away and run toward me and the children. The policemen came after him, beating him on the head with rubber truncheons. His clothes were torn. He was covered with blood and shouted: "My children, where are you going? Where are you being taken? Run, save yourselves!…". But at that moment I lost consciousness again and what happened next – I don't know. About an hour later I came to and began to eat ice. I lay in silence for the whole day. The whole time I heard the cries of people being shot to death, the screams of children, women, and old people. After the shooting of each group [of the victims], the Germans approached the trench and finished off with a control shot those little children who were still alive. I was lying face down on the ice, without moving. Suddenly I heard a shot and felt a sharp pain in my legs. I was wounded in the lower part of both my legs. I bit my lips, but didn't move, I was lying half conscious. When it became dark, I felt that I was being covered with earth. Some time passed. I began to suffocate. When I carefully brushed off [the earth] from my head, I saw that it was already night and that the moon was shining. Since I felt I was freezing, I decided to crawl out of the pit, but my wounded legs would not comply with my will. I managed to crawl toward my children. My Abrasha was lying with his eyes open. I thought that he was still alive and began calling him in a whisper. But Abrasha did not answer. He and Marik – my dear children – were dead. They had been shot in the head by the Fascists. I kissed my children and left without knowing where I was going. ….