Murder Site of Vinnitsa Jews
Anna Abakunova, Copy YVA 14616865
Pyatnichany Forest Related Communities
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Murder story of Vinnitsa Jews in the Pyatnichany Forest
Murder Site
Pyatnichany Forest
Ukraine (USSR)
On the morning of September 19, 1941 members of a detachment of Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C, together with members of the 45th and 314th Order Police Battalions and Ukrainian auxiliaries started to drive Vinnitsa Jews of all ages and both sexes, who were living west of the South Bug River in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Ierusalimka, to a collection point in the area of Volodarskaya, Sobornaya, and Pervomayskaya Streets, close to the river bank. The assembled Jews had their papers checked, then they were loaded into trucks and taken to the Pyatnichany Forest on the western outskirts of the city (now part of Vinnitsa). There, near Litin (now Khmelnitskiy) Road the Jews were forced to surrender the valuables they had brought with them and were then shot to death at large trenches dug in advance on German orders by Soviet prisoners of war. Estimates of the total number of victims of this massacre range from 3,500 to 10,000 or even to the exaggerated number of 15,000 (according to different Soviet sources).
On April 16, 1942 the commissar of the city of Vinnitsa Fritz Margenfeld ordered the Jews of Vinnitsa who had survived the massacres of 1941 to appear at the local stadium, allegedly for resettlement in a ghetto. After Jews of all ages and both sexes assembled at the stadium, a selection was carried out by Baltic auxiliaries who were stationed in Vinnitsa at this time. About 1,000 skilled workers were separated and sent to the city prison, while the rest were ordered to hand over the belongings they had brought with them. They were then driven to the Pyatnichany Forest and killed at the same murder site as the victims of September 1941. The number of victims of this massacre was about 5,000. The perpetrators of this mass murder were apparently members of the Reich Security Service, responsible for Hitler's personal security.
Related Resources
Written Testimonies
German Reports / Romanian Reports
Soviet Reports
ChGK Soviet Reports
From the farewell letter of Aron Gonchar to his sons:
April 15, 1942
Vinnitsa. Zavodskaya Street, no. 21
My dear children Yasha and Mitya,
I am leaving you this note, perhaps my last. Tomorrow we are going to the stadium; if they leave us there, then I will write again. Meanwhile, I will say farewell to you, my dear children. Be happy and healthy. Behave decently and remember us and what we are undergoing. You will, probably, not have to undergo all this because we all are Jews. Dear children, [continue to] grow up and be good. Look out for and take care of each other. Help each other. Don't become depressed. If you are still alive, that means that you will [continue to] live. Behave decently. My children, I hold you responsible for each other. If you find any of our relatives [alive], stick with them.
Be healthy and happy,
Your Dad, Aron Gonchar, With love and kisses
Yad Vashem Archive 14443140
From the Letter received by the Red Army soldier Dmitriy Galperin from Zhenya Leshchitina in Vinnitsa containing information about the death of his family, 1944:
...[A]t the dawn of another day Gestapo and murder squads surrounded all the streets, courtyards, and houses in the city center and drove the people out of their beds and into the street, and took a large number of them to Leininskaya [Street] or I do not know wherever else. The noise of engines of the trucks was heard; they [the victims] were loaded onto the trucks and taken to the forest where they were shot…
I was lying [in bed]…when suddenly I heard some noise in the courtyard…I got up without dressing and approached the window. I saw a lot of people walking along my street with Germans on both sides of them. I woke up Nadya and asked her: "What is it? Where are they being taken so early?" Then Nadya cried: "Aunt, aunt! There is your aunt [Tanya, Galperin's wife] with Iza [Galperin's daughter]." Then everything grew dark before my eyes. Afterwards Nadya told me that Tanya was wearing a padded jacket and white kerchief, carrying Iza [Galperin's daughter] in her arms and looking toward our windows…
YVA O.75 / 1822
From the Testimony of Bella Gelfman, who was born in 1924:
…On the 16th of April 1942 all the Jews were told to go to the stadium as if they were going to be sent from there to the ghetto. At the stadium the fascists started to select people. My mother, younger sister, and grandmother were added to a group of people, then they were loaded onto a truck - we understood that we wouldn't see them anymore- driven to the Piatnichansky [Pyatnichany] forest, and shot there. My father joined some other column and I and my sister were sent to prison, from which we were taken to perform different kinds of work…
YVA O.33 / 7087
From the Testimony of Lev Mandelblat, who was born in 1930:
…Then in the morning we were still sleeping, when two policemen burst [into our apartment] and pushed us out to the street; we hardly managed to get dressed, and there were already assembling columns of Jews.
QUESTION: When did this take place?
ANSWER: It took place on the morning of September 20 or 21, 1941, I do not remember [for sure]…
Therefore, the first mass murder operation was the day I am telling you about. Then they [the policemen] diverted their attention to the landlady's daughter, while we were already leaving and walking through a courtyard; in our courtyard there was a cellar with a sloping part above the ground. My mother pushed me in there and started to run. The policemen started to chase her and my mother, who was never very athletic, jumped right over the fence while the policemen couldn't do so. So she managed to run away while I remained in the cellar. And through a peephole I saw how the landlady's daughter being taken away while for some reason the landlady herself was not there. And those people were taken away, the column was taken away…
YVA O.3 / 11529
From the Testimony of Yitzhak Staszewski, who was born in 1928, "The Life and Death of the Jews in Vinnitsa (Soviet Ukraine) at the time of German Occupation" (in Yiddish):
… Two months after the ghetto was established the first pogrom occurred. The Germans selected specialists and artisans from the entire Jewish population, while the rest, numbering 2,000 Jews, elderly, women, and children, were taken by truck outside the city where pits had already been prepared, and shot then by them [the Germans].
In August 1942 a second pogrom took place. This time only women were taken away and were shot outside the city….
YVA M.11 / 288
The farewell letter of Tumer Gonchar to her sons:
My dear children Yashka and Mitenka!
I am writing you, my dear children, perhaps for the last time. There are no words to express the desire, the urge with which we want to live but, evidently, that is not to be. We would like at least to see you, my golden ones. Don't cry. Don't become depressed. If you both return [from the front], don't abandon each other. If any of our relatives returns, take care of them. Behave as you have up to this time, my dear, beloved sweet children.
Forgive us if we have ever wronged you. The only thing we are guilty of is not having come to you on foot but who could have imagine that such a thing would happen?
With love and kisses for you, my golden ones.
Your mother T. Gonchar
April 15, 1942
Your [dear] little grandmother is with us. She sends kisses to you and asks you not to cry for us. I am leaving 10 photographs for you to remember us. That is all that remains.
Ask our neighbors and you will find more notes [letters] from us.
Pyatnichany Forest
forest
Murder Site
Ukraine (USSR)
49.239;28.476
Photos
Murder Site of Vinnitsa Jews
Anna Abakunova, Copy YVA 14616865