Contemporary view of the murder site. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615598
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Murder story of Kerch Jews in the Adzhimushkay Anti-Tank Trench (Gas Vans)
Murder Site
Adzhimushkay Anti-Tank Trench (Gas Vans)
Russia (USSR)
On June 22 (or July 8-9), 1942 about 1,500 Krymchak Jews (or 800, according to other sources) - mainly women, children, and old people, as well as the remaining Ashkenazi Jews and people from mixed marriages, were collected at Sennaya Square, put into prison, and then taken by truck to an anti-tank trench near Adzhimushkay village. They were shot to death, apparently by a Sonderkommando 10b murder squad. The little children were thrown alive into the trench. According to German and Soviet testimonies, some of the victims were asphyxiated in gas vans during the ride from the city prison to the murder site and their bodies were thrown out at the [murder] site. The clothes and personal possessions of the victims were taken away and their apartments were confiscated by the Germans. During this period Soviet military personnel and prisoners of war were also shot to death at this site.
Related Resources
Written Testimonies
German Reports / Romanian Reports
ChGK Soviet Reports
From the diary of Tatyana Bondar, who was living in Kerch during the German-Romanian occupation, about the murder of the Krymchaks
What a dreadful, terrible day! You can't imagine how much blood and how many tears were shed on this day. All the Krymchaks had been taken away and it was clear that they were about to be shot to death. The hair of my head stood up at all these nightmarish acts of a "civilized nation." People were running, the adults and children were screaming. Indeed, everyone wants to live, life is so short and we are given this chance only once. But they, those monsters – the occupiers - were annihilating not only the adults, but also the innocent little ones who didn't understand anything. It would have been less bad if they [the Germans] did this with their own hands. It was worse that [this was done by] some Russians, henchmen, hirelings [of the Germans]. They entered homes to take away innocent people by force and shoot them to death. How can one look at this and at these poor people?! I can't bear them anymore, all these abuses. I can't imagine that maybe soon you will share the same fate [of the victims]….
Mikhail Tyaglyi, ed., The Holocaust in Crimea, Simferopol, 2002, p. 54 (Russian).
Adzhimushkay Anti-Tank Trench (Gas Vans)
anti-tank trench
Murder Site
Russia (USSR)
45.362;36.475
Photos
Contemporary view of the murder site. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615598