Murder Story of Samgorodok Jews on the Germanovka Road

…At some time around July 1942, I do not remember the date, a mounted policeman, Ivan Kalistratovich Osaulko [?] arrived at the Stalin collective farm and demanded that the chairman of the German communal farm [the Germans used the term "communal farm" rather than "collective farm"] Bezpalko assign twelve men with shovels to dig a pit for an unknown purpose. Bezpalko assigned 12 people…including myself. We were taken under the guard of the policemen Ivan Kalistratovich Osaulko and Vasiliy Melnik outside the town of Samgorodok in the direction of Germanovka village. About two kilometers from Samgorodok about 50 meters to the left of the road to the village of Germanovka we were ordered to dig a pit. After about 30-40 minutes we were joined by 12 more people with shovels from the Petrovskiy collective farm of Samgorodok village. The 24 people mentioned above dug a pit about 10 meters long, 8 meters wide, and 3 meters deep. About 40 minutes after the pit was dug a Gebietskommissar whose name I do not know arrived by car from Kazatin and ordered us to move to a haystack, while policemen and gendarmes were bringing under guard about 500 residents of the town of Samgorodok. After the people were taken to the pit, they were forced to strip, brought right up to the pit itself, and then one German shot the people, who ended up in the pit. All the people taken to the pit were shot; not a single one remained alive. When the shooting ceased, we were taken back to the pit and ordered to cover it with earth. When we approached the pit, [we saw that] the bodies had already been lightly covered with earth - this had been done by the Germans and the policemen themselves. After we were taken to the pit, the Germans and Hungarians left while we remained alone with the policemen until we finished covering the pit. In addition, there were many children, from infants to 8-10 year-olds, along with the adult Jews taken there [to the pit]….

…Approximately on June 4, 1942, at about 3 a.m., German [and?] Hungarian submachine-gunners appeared, accompanied by gendarmes and [local] policemen, surrounded the ghetto, and started to drive the people - adults, elderly people, and children - into the building of the secondary school. In the process anyone who tried to escape was shot on the spot. [Also] those old people who were unable to walk to the above-mentioned place were shot on the spot. At about 10 a.m. on June 4, 1942 most of the people, a total of about 540 of them, were forced into the school. After that all of the people were lined up and some of the men - skilled workers (shoemakers, tool-makers, mechanics) and young girls of 16-18, a total 10-15 people, were separated and sent to Kazatin. The remaining people, the majority, were taken under reinforced guard toward Germanovka village, Samgorodok County, to be shot. A large pit was prepared two kilometers from Germanovka village; all of the people were taken there. There they were forced to strip to their underwear and then were murdered. According to my personal calculations the Germans exterminated a total of 492 people, including 245 children.

…Approximately on June 4, 1942, at about 3 a.m., members of the German Gendarmerie and [local] police surrounded the ghetto and started to drive civilians to the building of Samgorodok secondary school. Whoever tried to flee and those elderly people who were unable to walk were shot on the spot. About 10 a.m. of July [sic, for June] 4, 1942 about 540 people who had been held at the school were lined up and were taken under reinforced guard to the shooting site in the direction of Germanovka village, Samgorodok County. A large pit in which shooting of the civilians was carried out by the German occupiers was prepared in advance two kilometers from Germanovka village. During the shooting the civilians were forced to strip to their underwear after which they were murdered. At this time the German Fascist monsters led by Samgorodok Gendarmerie Chief Richter, chief of the [local] police Vashchenok [?], and county elder Shvabskyi, shot to death or threw into the pit alive about 492 [sic] members of the civilian population - women, elderly people, and children, and also 15 Russian prisoners of war….