Murder Story of Khashchevatoye Jews at a Clay Pit in Khashchevatoye

In the evening of February 15, 1942 the village [sic] Khashchevatoye of Gayvoron County. Kirovograd (previously Odessa) District was surrounded by policemen. All the roads were blocked off. There was no possibility of escape from the town. Policemen from all over the county were gathered to do the job. In teams of two, with guns the policemen went from house to house, taking the Jews and collecting them in the movie theater (the former synagogue of Khashchevatoye). They [the Jews] were told to take warm clothes and their money and valuables (gold and silver) with them. Nearby there was a clubhouse (formerly a Jewish study or prayer hall). Before being forced into the movie theater, they were taken into the club, where their warm clothes and valuables (rings, earrings, and gold chains) were taken away from them. Then they were put into the movie theatre. The weather was very cold and there was lots of snow on the ground. There was a clay pit behind the town where all the people were taken to be shot to death. They were taken in groups of 10, accompanied by four policemen armed with rifles and submachine-guns. They were taken along two streets – Voroshilov Street and the former Sovetskaya Street. Pits had been prepared in advance. The men and the women were shot to death and thrown into one pit, the children – into two other pits/another pit. There were hysteric screams and mothers saying farewell to their children. Most of them were led with bare feet through the snow. The shouts of farewell were heard very far away. This bloody massacre lasted for the day and night of February 16. All night long bursts of rifle and submachine-gun fire were heard. By the evening of February 16 all the Jews had been shot to death…..At first the male specialists were left alive, they numbered about 70. After a week all of them were also shot and thrown into two pits at the same clay pit. Of those who had been in the movie theater only two people survived.

Hoping that the executioners would have mercy on the children, some young Jewish mothers left their infants in the club. When all the adults were shot to death the nationalists [the Ukrainians] came into the club. In order not leave the building since the weather was very cold, they grabbed the children by their legs and murdered them by smashing their heads against the walls.