Murder Story of Dunayevtsy Jews on Pervomayskaya Street in Dunayevtsy

In late February 1942 a group of Jewish men was working at the Dunayevtsy train station. On Saturday the head of the station, the Volkdeutsch Theo Sherer (or, according to another testimony, Osvald Krauze), released them and sent them home. However, the Germans regarded their leaving work as sabotage and on Sunday they were imprisoned. In the first days of March 1942, following a German order, the 19 Jewish detainees were taken from the prison to the local police station and, under German and Ukrainian guard, were then taken to Pervomayskaya Street (Bazarnaya Square), the town's central street, to be hanged publicly on telegraph poles. The site had been surrounded by Ukrainian auxiliary policemen and several German guards. Gebietskommissar Eduard Eggers, who was in charge of the operation, was present. Each of the 19 Ukrainian auxiliary policemen who had been chosen for this assignment hanged one person. During the hanging one of the victims tried to escape but was shot to death and then his body was hanged. A Jew who lived near the execution site and tried to observe the hanging was shot to death by a Ukrainian policeman. Only after several days did the Germans allow the Jews to take the bodies down from the gallows and bury them.